“A leader standing up with the people who voted for him for representing them in the highest law making body of the country called “Parliament” is sufficient enough to send out a message that people are bigger than the party in power and the leaders elected by them for public representation.”
Unwanted and unjust critical remarks of National Conference MLA Salman Ali Sagar against his senior party colleague and incumbent Srinagar Member Parliament Agha Syed Ruhullah for leading a public protest against J&K reservation policy has triggered a huge public protest for some right reasons. A leader standing up with the people who voted for him for representing them in the highest law making body of the country called “Parliament” is sufficient enough to send out a message that people are bigger than the party in power and the leaders elected by them for public representation. If at all Salman’s allegation that Agha Syed Ruhullah stood up in protest with his party’s adversaries including PDP’s Illtija Mufti and Waheed U Rehman Para outside Chief Minister’s residence is taken into consideration the people in Kashmir have overwhelmingly supported Ruhullah’s decision to stand up with NC’s adversaries for a just public cause like merit and Aga Ruhullah has himself given some satisfying explanations to such questions of his critics from both within and outside the National Conference. Interestingly National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah was for fiver long years heading an alliance called People’s Alliance For Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) of which his adversary PDP was a key constituent. Moreover recent J&K Assembly Elections have shown that political parties who went against the people’s aspirations during last five years faced a crushing defeat both in the parliamentary and assembly elections this year. As such it can be said that had Aga Ruhullah not vowed to stand up even against his own party and the leadership for protecting the rights of the people National Conference won’t have won this year’s assembly elections with a thumping majority. Standing up for merit is not a crime but a duty Agha Ruhullah has performed to keep his promise and identify himself with the people to whom he has promised protection of their rights. Above all Salman Sagar’s critical marks against Aga Ruhullah for leading an anti-reservation protest outside the Chief Minister’s Office shows that he (Sagar) tends to be more loyal than the king instead of building a bond with the people who voted for his election to the assembly from Hazratbal assembly constituency.
“While the irrefutable fact is that compromising merit is tantamount to compromising quality in key public services like Health, Engineering, Civil & Police Administration and Education best managed by only meritorious people equally in Jammu & Kashmir and as well other parts of the country, Wisdom demands that Sagar and his likes both within and outside the National Conference learn to speak more for the people but not the political parties to which they belong just for getting the clout of their senior leaders who can offer them plum positions both in the Government and the party anytime in future.”
Interestingly like Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Salman Ali Sagar is also product of hereditary politics and as such does not need to try his luck in a competitive examinations like NEET and Civil Services and consequently he does not tend to stand up against a controversial reservation for propagating the causes of merit. A leader having secured his/her future in politics through dynastism won’t obviously show no respect for the merit and instead overtly and covertly would only favour policy of unjust reservations just for securing vote banks of his/her party. Sagar and his followers don’t show any concern over the frustration growing fast among youth over an unprecedented drop in the quota of open merit below 50% which incidentally is in contravention with the national reservation policy. Shockingly even Gh Ahmad Mir the top Congress leader in Jammu & Kashmir despite knowing all about national reservation policy has also raised questions over Ruhullah’s anti-reservation protest without any rhyme or reasons. Incidentally the failure of Congress in siding with people of Jammu & Kashmir has reduced the grand old party’s strength from 19 to just 7 seats in the J&K Assembly. While the irrefutable fact is that compromising merit is tantamount to compromising quality in key public services like Health, Engineering, Civil & Police Administration and Education best managed by only meritorious people equally in Jammu & Kashmir and as well other parts of the country, Wisdom demands that Sagar and his likes both within and outside the National Conference learn to speak more for the people but not the political parties to which they belong just for getting the clout of their senior leader who can offer them plum positions both in the Government and the party anytime in future.
