“Expectations of people are skyrocketing to unimaginable heights and the newly elected legislators will be now judged by their actions but not the words.”
Public outreach of political leaders in election time is their compulsion but not in post elections scenario when grievances of the people don’t get the desired responses from the Government. For right reasons people don’t pay head to the promises leaders make in the pre-election scenarios as their actions themselves speak about their irresponsible responses to the grievances of the people in the post election scenarios. Talking much in the pre-election scenarios and doing little in the post election scenarios has in fact eroded the credibility of political leaders everywhere in the country and same holds good for the political leaders of Jammu & Kashmir. While the grievances redressal system is not strong enough to show any improvement in the delivery of public services at gross roots, the public representatives unfortunately don’t reach out to people for improving the delivery of public services in the post election scenario with the intensity they reach out to them in elections times for vote and support. The reducing accessibility of the people to public representatives in post election scenarios has unfortunately increased the alienation of the people during decades of popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir when it was a full fledged state with special status and Ladhak now a union territory was part of it. After the restoration of popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir it will be now for the public representatives to work on the agenda they have set for their assembly constituencies. Expectations of people are skyrocketing to unimaginable heights and the newly elected legislators will be now judged by their actions but not the words. What matters the most is the fact that initiating a public outreach initiative without taking any initiative for addressing the core grievances of the people in consultation with all stake holders goes against the spirit of democracy and responsive administration.
“A commitment to keep the promises made during the campaigning of the ongoing assembly elections if not kept this time may erode the faith of people in the electoral politics in coming years. So political outreach in the post election scenarios with a commitment to improve the delivery of public services would prove detrimental for the future of electoral politics in Jammu & Kashmir.”
Taking public outreach initiative in the remotest of the remote areas once in a week and reviewing the decisions taken there at the follow up meetings at the highest level can obviously further the causes of the accessibility of people to public representatives and also improve the delivery of public services in both the most inaccessible and as wells accessible areas of Jammu & Kashmir. A commitment to keep the promises made during the campaigning of the ongoing assembly elections if not kept this time may erode the faith of people in the electoral politics in coming years. So political outreach in the post election scenarios with a commitment to improve the delivery of public services would prove detrimental for the future of electoral politics in Jammu & Kashmir.
