by: Jamil Siddiqui
Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistan administration is currently standing at such a historical and dangerous juncture where the shining plaques of state institutions are there, but the spirit of service, honesty, justice, humanity and public sentiment has almost disappeared from within these institutions. The clothes, protocols and statements of the faces sitting in the government halls seem modern, but the spirit of the governance system has been buried in the darkness of centuries-old obsolescence, incompetence, nepotism and corruption.
Today, the people of this region are not only victims of inflation, unemployment or mismanagement, but are facing a systematic state exploitation where the life, honor, hunger, illness and future of the poor man have all been made subordinate to the interests of a few privileged classes.
Looking at the streets, markets, government offices, hospitals, courts, educational institutions and highways of the state, it feels as if there is no government here but a long-term government of indifference, lawlessness and self-interest.
The biggest tragedy is that today the basic right of the people, i.e. “bread”, has also been turned into a political, administrative and business crisis. The current flour crisis is actually not just a problem of wheat or supply, but it is a living proof of the incompetence, corruption and indifference of the entire government structure.
The food department, whose job was to light the stoves of the people’s homes, is today itself becoming the biggest center of corruption, commission-taking, hoarding, nepotism, political interference and administrative shamelessness. People stand in queues early in the morning to get flour, old people are humiliated in lines with the help of sticks, sick women become victims of oppression, workers leave their daily wages and stand outside government depots, but the answer is the same:
Flour is gone, come again tomorrow.
But the surprise is not that the flour is gone, the surprise is that the same flour becomes available in large quantities in the black market at high prices a few hours later. The question is, what is the magic that makes flour disappear from government warehouses and appear in the markets?
This secret is no longer hidden from the people. People have come to know that a sack of flour goes through many stages of commission, recommendation, hoarding and corruption before reaching the people. Many officers sitting in state offices have probably forgotten that they are servants of the people, not rulers.
If the walls of the Food Department offices ever speak, perhaps such stories of missing wheat sacks, fake supply records, paper distribution, political favors and commissions would come to light that the patience of the people would break.
This tragedy is not limited to the food sector alone. Every department of the state government seems to be suffering from the cancer of indifference, mismanagement and corruption at this time.
If we look at the mood of the ministers, it seems as if everything is going well in the state. Royal convoys funded by the state treasury, long queues of protocol, unnecessary foreign trips, exhibition meetings, lavish banquets in hotels, an army of official vehicles, unbridled consumption of petrol, an army of advisors and coordinators – all this is going on as if the treasury, not the people, was created only for those who enjoy power.
On the one hand, the poor man is having his self-respect damaged for a sack of flour, on the other hand, new records of luxury are being set in the halls of power. The budget generated by the people’s taxes seems to be spent less on the people and more on the protocols of the rulers.
The state government is probably still in the complacency that the people will remain silent as usual, a few announcements, a few false promises and a few showy statements will keep the situation under control. But the rulers are probably forgetting that when hunger increases, anger also increases, and when anger turns into consciousness, then the throne and crown do not remain safe for long.
The health system is also currently presenting such a picture of destruction that even humanity would be ashamed to see. If the big government hospitals of the city government are called slaughterhouses instead of hospitals, it would not be an exaggeration.
There are no medicines for the patients in the hospitals, no fully functional machinery, no timely treatment, no human sympathy. Doctors’ strikes, protests by paramedical staff, administration’s indifference and looting of resources have turned the poor man into a living corpse.
Patients lie on the floor in the wards, groaning, relatives push and shove their way through the markets with medicine slips in their hands, and the ruling class never tires of claiming the best health system.
The poor people of the state are dying less from disease and more from the ruthlessness of the health system.
The education sector is also the biggest witness to the funeral of the rulers’ priorities. Many educational institutions destroyed in the horrific earthquake of 2005 have not been fully restored even after two decades. Innocent boys and girls are still forced to study under the open sky, in broken stones, dilapidated rooms and dangerous buildings.
Many schools are deprived of teachers, many are devoid of basic facilities, many are victims of political interference and many exist only on paper. But the ruling class is busy with political meetings, inaugurations and photo sessions instead of education.
The infrastructure situation also presents a scene of a devastated war-torn region. Broken roads, incomplete bridges, landslide-damaged roads, shoddy construction projects and development works stalled for years are announcing the fact that development here is subject to the politics of the commission.
Every project here is made on the basis of commissions that are more than the public needs.
Commission before the project starts,
Commission during the work,
and again in the name of repair after the project is destroyed.
It feels as if development projects in this state are created not for the people but to enrich specific pockets.
Despite all these circumstances, the ruling class is probably still unable to understand the intensity of public anger. The emergence of platforms like the Public Action Committee is actually an expression of this collective anxiety, deprivation and anger that was suppressed for decades.
This is not just an organization but a question and this question is asking the rulers that how long will the people continue to bear the burden of hunger, disease, unemployment, mismanagement and corruption?
The people are no longer the same as before. Now people are not affected by political acting, emotional slogans, exhibitionistic press conferences and artificial revolutionary speeches. Now social media, consciousness and ever-growing political awareness have shown the people the truth.
People now ask:
What have we got in the last eight decades?
Dilapidated schools?
Hospitals turned into slaughterhouses?
Commission-eating institutions?
Flour queues?
Or new world records of corruption?
The state elite should understand that now the problem is not just about bags of flour but about the loss of public trust in the entire system. And when the public trust in a state dies, then state buildings remain, not the state.
If the ruling class still cannot come to its senses, if this scourge of corruption is not eradicated from the roots, if the people are not given bread, justice, health, education and respect, then the time is not far when public anger will tear down every artificial wall.
Then perhaps history will write this:
When the state snatched bread from the people, the people snatched silence.
٭٭٭
Share this content:
