The opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday have blamed the government for “engaging in theatrics” and “passing the buck” over the rationalisation of reservation. They said the administration was avoiding responsibility instead of addressing people’s concerns.
The condemnation came after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said earlier in the day that his government had rationalised the reservation policy in the “best possible way” to ensure fairness for all groups and to fulfil an important election promise.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the People’s Conference strongly criticised the government on this issue.
PDP leader Iltija Mufti said on X that "No rationalisation of reservation or age relaxation despite being promised as NC's manifesto guarantees and verbal assurances. Instead, the NC government is engaging in theatrics by playing pass the parcel and blaming both to absolve itself of any responsibility. No wonder youth across J&K are in utter distress and despair. Shameful.”
People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone also attacked the government, saying it was “passing on the buck” and trying to create divisions among Kashmiris by setting them against each other.
"The elected government can easily restore district and divisional recruitment through an act in the assembly. Please, can someone enlighten me? What are the disadvantages of district and divisional recruitment? Why are we not restoring them?" he said in a post on X.
The Handwara MLA said that in a developing economy like Jammu and Kashmir, public sector jobs help create regional balance. He said that district-level reservations would go only to people from that area, increasing open merit seats in the Kashmir division to around 70 to 80 per cent.
"Instead, if what has been stated so far and what has not been contradicted by the elected government so far, is true, the only reserved category where Kashmiris benefited, the RBA (Resident of Backward Area), will be slashed," he said. Lone said he could not understand how such a move helped Kashmir.
"If we define the basic reservation problem, it would mean the systematic exclusion of Kashmiris in the recruitment process. You are yet again doing the same. But only changing the excluded Kashmiri. So if a Kashmiri named A was earlier excluded, you have substituted it with a Kashmiri called B," he said.
The problem, Lone said, lies between Jammu and Kashmir with the "dice loaded heavily in favour of Jammu".
"And between Jammu and Kashmir, the ratio will remain unchanged. 80 per cent reservations will still go to Jammu. Please take a pen and paper and do some calculations. The data is available in the answer that was provided by the government in response to my question on reservations," he added.
Reservation has become a key debate in the UT after the Centre added more communities to the reserved categories and expanded quotas in the UT over the past five years.
There has been increasing opposition to the Centre’s move to push the reservation quota to 70 per cent in the UT. This came after the introduction of a separate 10 per cent quota for Paharis and other tribes and an increase in the OBC quota to eight per cent.
On December 10 last year, the government set up a Cabinet sub-committee to examine complaints from aspirants about the reservation policy. The panel submitted its report in October, and the law department completed its review soon after.
The issue was discussed at the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday in Jammu. The government has now forwarded the proposal to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for approval.
However, Omar said it would be inappropriate to comment on the Cabinet’s decisions before the minutes were shared with the LG. He said the government had tried to rationalise the policy as promised and had worked to ensure fairness for everyone.
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