Sessions, Seasons and Reasons

As Kashmir silently celebrates the decision to shift the school exam session back to November, can one turn around and ask a simple question: Why was it dragged to March in the first place? While the credit goes to the present civilian government to immediately realise the need to restore the factory settings in case of the examination session, those who inflicted this injury on us must feel the twitch of guilt. What on earth did they gain by putting the students to trouble for the last two years?

With the reversal of the decision, it apparently looks like a closure to the problem. But that is not the case. It is time that the government and civil society join heads and hands to deepen the debate on such matters. Certain practices are a given in a certain cultural, geographical, and climatic context. These practices are not ordinarily affected by changes in political power.

If tomorrow someone else is in the government, the timings for sunrise and sundown will remain unchanged in Kashmir. Now someone may say, what has that to do with the topic under discussion? It means that activities, official or unofficial, tied to these timings remain the same. It means that if you change those timings, you are either mounting an offensive against nature or serving humiliation to people. If none of the two is correct, you are surely ridiculing your sense of discernment. When the exam session was changed to March two years back, we knew what it was. They who did it also knew what it was. They probably knew it more than us. Humiliation was officially documented in this case.

It is that document of humiliation the present government needs to study with more rigour, with an extra tinge of pain and share with people what and how of this document. Give the credit where it is due, is true. Omar Abdullah, Sakina Itoo, the public spirited individuals and organisations that stirred this issue – all deserve praise. But it is not the end of the road. What leads to patently wrong decisions in the officialdom of Kashmir, and how such decisions are brazenly thrust on people, is a matter that will need a serious follow up.

As a people, why Kashmiris feel like shelterless fire victims when the cover of a civilian government is not there for one reason or the other? Why bureaucracy behaves like an unrestrained monarch and why it is not held responsible for the damage it does to a people? In the case under discussion who is to compensate for the loss of time and mental agony caused to our students? If political representatives can be subjected to ruthless criticism, even shamed in public spaces, why not the officials who generate wrong inputs, peddle wrong information, and are a party to completely erroneous decisions? Where is that thing called accountability in this case? If people can be awarded posthumously, why can’t they be questioned post-taking a wrong decision; even if they have retired?

Someone may read naivety in all this. After all, a bureaucracy works within a system, and that system is bigger than the bureaucracy in totality. When a system has its season, that alone suffices as a reason. And bureaucracy does whatever it does in the service of that reason. But isn’t that a convenient and crafty excuse? In this particular case, was the bureaucracy faced with a situation of no-option, or did it simply enjoy power at the expense of students – our children? Bring it all to the public domain, and make it a part of democratic churning. If Omar Abdullah has now decided to raise an interface between the government and civil society, let the matters come up, one by one, and be followed up. In one of his meetings, when Omar Abdullah talked about the “shield” and very firmly called it “temporary,” let the underlining sense be widened to other areas.

It is not to paint bureaucracy, particularly its apex level, as diabolic. The bureaucracy is finally composed of people, and Kashmir has seen some of the finest people in these offices. The point is how this institution of governance is made responsible and answerable to people. And how their decisions are subjected to public scrutiny. It is about striking a wider dialogue involving all organs–public representatives, civil society, and bureaucracy. It is about retaining sanity.

When the November session was changed to March, sanity was lost. A wider dialogue to regain that sanity is a wonderful idea.

Tailpiece: Now that our children will enjoy their winter vacations and utilise the time to prepare for the next grade, it is time for their parents to tell them the story. Once upon a time, November was dragged to March. Times changed and November got its slot back. Time changes.