TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
So, now , it is official! Jammu and Kashmir stands at number 1…in more ways than one.
If, traditionally, beginning of a new year is the time when those guiding the destiny of the nation at the helm seek to recount achievements of the preceding year, then those at the helm in the State of Jammu and Kashmir have much to pat themselves for.
In the year that just concluded, Jammu and Kashmir was awarded as the state No. 1 for its achievements in Health sector thus living upto its reputation of maintaining high efficiency standards of the earlier year when none less than the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had himself testified that the J&K Chief Minister was the country’s best Chief Minister after he viewed a power point presentation by the latter. In the same year the State of Jammu and Kashmir was also credited for having conducted Panchayat elections after a long gap of three decades and then claiming to have adequately empowered the Panchayats without implementing 73,74 amendments of Indian Constitution originally mooted by Late Rajiv Gandhi for which Rajiv’s son and Congress party’s heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi travelled all the way to Srinagar to deliver a compliment. And yes, very significantly, a certain agency rated Jammu and Kashmir as one of the most “corruption-free” States in the country which is indeed remarkable considering the fact that the State neither has a functional Vigilance Organisation nor a strong Accountability Commission and therefore incorruptibility seems to be born out of a ”royal conviction” setting aside all charges of land grabbing by certain high-ups or allegations of cash for vote or cash for MLC.
The story of Number 1 does not end here. Only last week the Finance Minister disclosed that Jammu and Kashmir is probably the best “tax-collecting State” in the country thus giving a befitting rebuff to press reports about poor tax collection from Kashmir valley or under-rated power tariff paid from VIP premises. And, ofcourse, J&K Bank run by the State is country’s number 1 bank….whatever that means?
Overall, it is a matter of pride for anybody belonging to Jammu and Kashmir! At the end of the day…we are number 1. What if the cynics tend to mock our number 1 status through sarcastic references that Jammu and Kashmir is also Number 1 State in the number of road accidents or that Jammu and Kashmir is also Number 1 State in the misuse or non-official use of State aircraft?
Meanwhile,while the common man in Jammu and Kashmir…distressed and disgruntled…could illude himself into the glory of being a resident or subject, nay State Subject, of India’s Number 1 State, will his “custodians” spare a moment for introspection taking a leaf from Jawaharlal Nehru who had, as Prime Minister, issued directions for circulating among all his cabinet colleagues as well as the then President, Babu Rajendra Prasad a copy of a satirical poem by Josh Millianbadi which obliquely rated the Indian State as Number 1 for seemingly wrong reasons?
And, for the hi-fi Number 1 ruling elite of Jammu and Kashmir, Umapathy pleads a moment of self-evaluation taking cue from famous Ghalib cliche “Sun To Sahi Jahan Mein Hai Tera Fasaana Kya!”
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