Srinagar, June 14: Expressing deep concern over the ‘fast deteriorating public order’ in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed has asked the state government to look beyond cosmetics, photo-ops, bullet and bayonet and address people’s problems seriously.
Terming the present coalition as a cosmetic dispensation, Mufti in a statement said the government in the state was concerned only about managing the fall out of mis-governance and atrocities rather than working with any vision, agenda or a heart. “The more it looks up to galleries the more it gets cut off from the roots, fuelling anger, alienation and instability,” he said.
Mufti said instead of understanding the pain and problems of people and trying to reduce them, the government had brought the state to a virtual anarchy in a matter of months. “While the streets in Srinagar and other parts of the valley have become killing fields, law and order has crumbled in other parts of the state as well with development being nobody’s business,” he said. “In Jammu the criminals have taken over, threatening life and property, while the use of brutal force on the students at Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri is another pointer to the emerging chaotic conditions.”
Regretting that the ‘mishandling’ of the situation and government’s ‘careless’ attitude on governance front had caused all round difficulties, Mufti cautioned it could get out of control if the drift remained unaddressed. He said all sections of society were dissatisfied and collapse of administration was being sought to be made good through thoughtless and excessive use of force against unarmed youth. “No government can handover itself and public affairs to police and hope to carry along the people in the process of governance and development,” he said.
Mufti said government’s inability to deliver had resulted in wasting the gains of previous years which were made through a painstaking process in which the people had participated with conviction and hope. He said it is sad that at a time when relations between India and Pakistan had taken a positive turn, the managers of the state had succeeded in reversing the process when it matters the most. India and Pakistan, he said, can achieve pretty little unless the people of the State repose confidence into their efforts as had happened after 2002 elections. “It is the state of J&K that will have to lead the process of resolution and friendship and I don’t see that happening as long as innocent people are killed, opposition muzzled and all dissent crushed with the use of brutal force and laws like AFSPA and PSA,” he said.
Urging the government to put its act together before it is too late, Mufti said it seems to have forgotten the basic job of governance. He said all development works seemed to be on a hold and problems of power, roads, rations, sanitation and water had been accumulating, while the unrest caused by mis-governance was sought to be put down through force which had become the first option for government rather than the last resort.

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