Responsibility towards people

Kashmir is in a state of freeze, politics or climate. Though there is a civilian government in place, but the problems faced by people remain unresolved. The immediate answer to this would be that it has been less than three months that the government is in place and it takes time to fix the systems that have broken down.

Another explanation is that we have a hybrid system of governance and it complicates matters for the civilian government. One more addition to the bag of explanations is that  politically it is a challenged government. It has to balance multiple things and the margin of error is not even thin; it doesn't exist at all. We take all the three explanations because there is hardly any disagreement on all these points. But the question still remains.

Who is there to respond to the problems of the people? Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has made right notes, up till now, when it comes to the politics of the place. But he also needs to talk about the day to day problems with more impact, and even if his government is not in a position to solve the problems immediately, the least Omar Abdullah can do is to speak on behalf of the people. Right now we have severe power crisis. In this freezing cold we have power cuts, scheduled as well as unscheduled. True, there are many places where power losses happen due to pilferage, but that alone doesn't explain the shortfall in electricity.

While people need to be made conscious about the ethical use of electricity, we cannot keep all the blame for them. This government needs to raise its pitch and ask those who actually matter in the power hierarchy as to why people of Kashmir don't deserve better power supply. By giving voice to people, and speaking forcefully on their behalf, this government can build an argument from people's side.

The responsibility of this government in the first place is to give voice to a people that have been rendered silent on every count. If on account of Rules of Business this government feels itself handcuffed, what stops it from meeting people, listening to their grievances, becoming their voice, and in doing so, where-ever it becomes possible, resolving their problems. Each time this government cannot escape by telling its people how incapacitated it is given the current format of governance in J&K.

Omar Abdullah, as the leader of this government, must start thinking on how to walk past that incapacitation and bring relief to people. Being with the people, and amidst them, means just that.