Prof. A N Sadhu
The Government employees recruited under the PM’S package are sitting on dharna for the last two months, protesting against lack of adequate security and stringent conditions of their employment by the state government. These employees have been facing hardships right from the day they joined their jobs in the valley. The living conditions offered to them are neither adequate nor appropriate. Availability of essential services falls far too short of the desired level and working conditions are also not conducive. High handedness of their immediate officers has also come to notice and fear psychosis is looming large.
Having been left high and dry by the state government, the displaced youth were provided some relief by the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh by declaring an employment package in 2008. As a follow up, the government appointed some 1500 young boys and girls ( now about 2000) and posted them in Kashmir. Even though these employees are borne on the Central Budget, the state government formulated very harsh conditions and made the employees to sign an affidavit that they will serve in the valley and shall not be entitled to seek transfer outside the valley. This was neither required nor does it fit in the legal and constitutional framework of the country. If they are the state employees, they can be posted in any part of the state. The affidavit they were made to sign is an exploitative condition which goes against the norms, that are basic to our democratic and secular polity.
The employees suffered several hardships silently and patiently till July 8, 2016 when the disturbances broke out in the valley. Reportedly the transit camps lodging the package employees, particularly at Hall and Vessu were attacked by the masses and residential quarters and parked vehicles were damaged. Even though the employees escaped physical assaults narrowly due to some swift action by a handful of Security personnel posted there, the scare created made the employees to flee from there.
It looked like a situation of January 1990, which led to the exodus of the entire community of Kashmiri Pandits.
The employees are on dharna for the last over two months and nobody from the government has so far visited them or uttered a word on their concerns. The government cannot solve the problems by an attitude of indifference and governments should not allow the tensions to escalate and allow the problems to become more complex. Administrative jurisprudence demands that such problems are immediately addressed so that their ramifications do not snowball overtime. The state apparatus, it seems, has also not attended to the problems of these employees after they joined their services in different districts of the valley. Naturally the manifestation of their anager and distrust is not only due to the present turmoil, it is also due to the neglect, suffered by them ever since they joined their jobs in the valley. It is not only the threat perception that scared them away, it is more severely the mental agony that they are suffering from. The mental agony has social, psychological and cultural dimensions.
The restoration of peace, harmony and the spirit of kashmiriat warrants that these employees are well attended and provided healthy and encouraging environment. The harsh condition that they cannot work in any area of the state amounts to caging them and limiting their movement to the boundaries of the valley alone when as state subjects they are entitled to work anywhere in the state.That they don’t get their salaries in time, it is because they are not shown as part of the regular establishment and are excluded from the main salary bill. Not only does it operate harsh on them but it also generates a sense of discrimination which goes counter to the need of promoting erstwhile brotherhood and harmonious religious co-existence. It also does not help in creating a conducive social environment which is imperative to the revivalism of Kashmiriat in the valley. The political and civil administration should neither remain casual, nor should they lose sight of its long term implications. Meanwhile the appointment letters of new appointees be issued immediately and giving them the freedom to join as per their own choice. Salaries of the protesting employees be released and an agency created to deal with their problems immediately.
Exoduses of K.P. community have been happening repeatedly ever since muslim bigots invaded the valley of Kashmir. The community has always shown that it is prepared to undergo all the hardships but would never compromise with its honour and religious belief. History is witness to the fact, that there has always been a felt need of their return to enrich the social, cultural and political life of the valley. KPs have shown their merit, their physical and mental forte and ability to tide over hardtimes and forge ahead. Having been forced out of the land-locked territory, they never succumbed but showed their resolve and determination to fight odd times and showcase their merit, earning them not only the national but international recognition of their managerial skills and intellectual sharpness. That they have the inalienable right to their share of sun and shade in their homeland is an undisputed fact and no power on earth can refuse it. In the evolution of political and social life of world communities and countries, their do occur delays in some situations but their never can be denials of basic rights of the human beings on individual or community levels. K.P.s cannot be denied their rights and they will achieve them with resonance.
Statesmanship demands that lessons of history are not forgotten, nor is history distorted. The right things be done at the right time. At times the bankruptcy of leadership and statesmanship results into a lasting damage and let efforts be made that this does not happen.
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