Public functionaries in Jammu & Kashmir are using digital platforms more for their personal projections and less for institutional and administrative changes in the work culture.
The videos showing activities of Ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats particularly their inspections at Government offices and project construction sites go viral on social media sites from dawn to dusk and as such are a pointer to the fact that politicians and bureaucrats are using social media videos as ventilators to create imaginary impressions about their working without improving the delivery of services and pace of developmental works on the ground in Jammu & Kashmir. Virtually irritated by such unwanted and objectionable activities of politicians and bureaucrats on social media sites the people continue trolling them for days together. So social media influencers can’t change the public opinion about the working of public representatives and Bureaucrats. Though a general perception among the people is that work is worth as it speaks itself about the performance of the workers but unfortunately public functionaries in Jammu & Kashmir are using digital platforms more for their personal projections and less for institutional and administrative changes in the work culture. Unfortunately some direct recruit IAS officers spend more time on uploading videos about their career progression on their personal timelines for their self projection and less on their professional work they have to do in and outside their Government offices. A common public perception about bureaucrats is that they qualify civil service examination for building their own careers and as such by qualifying such an examination they are not doing any favour to the people but just build their careers. It is also fact that People once believed that bureaucrats are careerists but politicians are not. However this public perception about politicians has also changed given the fact that politicians too now tend to build careers of their own children in politics.
“Public perception about the performance of politicians and bureaucrats is changing so fast that just in a short span of four month the people of Mahrashtra in just concluded assembly elections flatly denied the huge mandate to the opposition parties which they offered to them in this year’s Lok Sabha elections in the month of May. Today it has happened in Mahrashtra and tomorrow it can happen in Jammu & Kashmir. So it is time for the politicians in power in Jammu & Kashmir and bureaucrats working under their control to read the writing on wall and learns lessons before getting a Mahrashtra like punishment in the upcoming Panchayat and Municipal elections.”
At the end of the day people are not concerned about the careers of either politicians or bureaucrats but about their professional work they do in different roles and at different times. For all practical purposes neither the bureaucrats nor the politicians can dispute the fact that even if they do some exceptionally good work in different institutional and administrative roles, it is in no way an undue favour to the people as they are being paid for the work they do from the taxpayers’ pockets. So uploading videos on social media sites about activities in the field or inspections at Government offices and project construction sites does not at all change the public perceptions about the performance of politicians as public representatives and bureaucrats as administrators. In fact public perception about the performance of politicians and bureaucrats is changing so fast that just in a short span of four month the people of Mahrashtra in just concluded assembly elections flatly denied the huge mandate to the opposition parties which they offered to them in this year’s Lok Sabha elections in the month of May. Today it has happened in Mahrashtra and tomorrow it can happen in Jammu & Kashmir. So it is time for the politicians in power in Jammu & Kashmir and bureaucrats working under their control to read the writing on wall and learns lessons before getting a Mahrashtra like punishment in the upcoming Panchayat and Municipal elections.
By Shafqat Bukhari
