MUSHTAQ BALA
Jammu and Kashmir is entering an important phase of its political life. With the Legislative Assembly meeting again, public attention is shifting from promises and announcements to a more fundamental question: what is actually being delivered?
The question is particularly relevant after the restoration of an elected government. People expect politics to translate into governance—and governance into visible improvement in their everyday lives.
Jobs, recruitment, regularisation of workers, public services, roads, healthcare, education and administrative accountability remain among the issues that directly shape public confidence. On each of these fronts, announcements matter, but implementation matters more.
The current controversy over recruitment and reservation illustrates the point.
Peoples Conference president Sajad Gani Lone has questioned the regional representation in the recently announced JKAS and J&K Accounts selections, citing the number of candidates selected from the Kashmir Valley against its population share. The government and other political stakeholders may have different interpretations of the figures and the reservation framework.
That is precisely why the matter deserves a transparent and evidence-based discussion in the Assembly.
Recruitment to government services carries enormous significance in Jammu and Kashmir. Where public employment remains highly sought after, even the perception of regional imbalance can create considerable public concern. The appropriate response is neither political rhetoric nor dismissal of the concern, but facts.
The government should be able to explain the applicable reservation framework, selection data and the factors determining regional representation. If changes are being proposed, their expected impact should also be placed clearly before the public.
Transparency is often the simplest way of resolving controversy.
The same principle applies to the long-pending issue of daily wagers and other categories of workers awaiting a permanent solution. Committees and reviews may be necessary, but they cannot become substitutes for decisions. Employees and their families need to know what is being considered, within what timeframe and what process will follow.
A committee must eventually produce an outcome.
The Assembly has an important role in ensuring that this happens. It should not merely become a venue for exchanging political accusations. It should be a place where ministers answer specific questions, departments provide data, commitments are recorded and follow-up is demanded.
That is the essence of legislative accountability.
There is also a wider administrative challenge. For the ordinary citizen, government is not experienced through policy documents or press releases. It is experienced at a hospital counter, a government office, a school, a police station, a municipal service centre or a recruitment portal.
A citizen does not care which department is responsible for a delay. He or she simply wants the problem resolved.
Digitisation has improved access to many government services, but technology cannot replace accountability. An online application that remains pending indefinitely is still a failure of delivery.
Development too must be judged by outcomes rather than announcements. A sanctioned road is not the same as a completed road. A healthcare scheme is not meaningful unless patients can access the service. An employment initiative has value only when it creates genuine opportunities.
This is where the credibility of the elected government will ultimately be tested.
The Opposition has an essential democratic role in questioning government decisions. But criticism becomes more meaningful when it is supported by facts and accompanied by workable alternatives. Similarly, the government should not treat every criticism as an attack. A functioning democracy requires scrutiny.
The Assembly session therefore presents an opportunity for both sides.
The government can demonstrate that it is prepared to explain its decisions, acknowledge shortcomings and establish measurable timelines.
The Opposition can demonstrate that it is prepared to scrutinise policy through facts, documents and sustained legislative engagement.
And the public can judge the results.
Jammu and Kashmir has lived through prolonged periods of political and administrative uncertainty. The return of an elected legislature has consequently raised expectations. Those expectations cannot be met through political messaging alone.
People want predictable governance.
They want recruitment processes they can understand and trust.
They want pending employment issues addressed.
They want public services that function without unnecessary delays.
And they want institutions that accept responsibility when things go wrong.
The coming Assembly session should therefore be more than another cycle of speeches and headlines. It should be an opportunity to establish a culture of questions, answers, timelines and delivery.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir are increasingly capable of distinguishing between an announcement and an achievement, between a committee and a solution, and between a promise and its implementation.
The next phase of governance must recognise that reality.
Kashmir does not need more promises alone. It needs results—and it needs those results to be visible, measurable and accountable.
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural commentator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
