With every job list becoming public, the tensions are soaring as open merit is emerging as the minority stakeholder in the opportunities that Jammu and Kashmir is creating. This was the key factor playing behind the Gupkar protest alongside the animosities that Kashmir politicians have, writes Masood Hussain
In October 2024, when the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) made public the names of the 71 candidates appointed to the administrative service of the erstwhile state, the shock waves set off. There were only 29 candidates who made it to the list under open merit. The rest of it, 60 per cent of the selected comprised reserved candidates.
After the Omar Abdullah-led government took over and the appointment process was reported to have been fast-forwarded, the JKPSC sought applications for filing 575 lecturer positions. Of this, only 238 posts (41.39 per cent) were for the open merit candidates and the balance positions were reserved for a basket of selections of populations falling under the elaborate reservations list.
Soon, the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB) sought applications to fill 669 positions of Sub Inspectors in Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP). Of these positions, only 267 were announced to fall under open merit and the balance 402 – 60.08 per cent were for reserved categories.
It was followed by another list under which the JKSSB is supposed to select 4002 constables for JKP. In this list, the Board will be filling only 1600 candidates from the open merit category (39 per cent) and the balance of 2402 will be from reserved categories, a 61 per cent reservation.
Reeling under a staggering 30 per cent unemployment rate, these notices triggered a massive response. For the positions of constables alone, 5,59,135 candidates applied. “If you see the earnings that the recruiting agencies made from these positions, they advertised, it must be almost Rs 40 crore,” one lawmaker who wishes not to be named. “People are desperate for jobs as the windows for any hiring at the official level remained closed for most of the last five years.”
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Changed Reservations System
Right now, however, in the job rat race, the issue is who gets a job when the dice is already loaded. In the last five years, the system of reservations has changed completely. Earlier, 43 per cent of jobs in the government and admissions in the professional courses were reserved vertically – 8 per cent for Scheduled Castes (SC), 10 per cent for Scheduled Tribes (ST), 2 per cent for Other Social Classes (OSCs), 3 per cent for Residents of areas adjoining Line of Actual Control (ALC), and 20 per cent for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA). Besides, there was a horizontal reservation of 6 per cent available to ex-servicemen and 3 per cent to Physically Challenged Persons (PwD).
Post-2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules 2005 changed gradually. Firstly, the reservation of OSCs was increased by 2 per cent. Then, a one per cent quota was added to ALC and residents of International Borders were added to it. A four per cent quota was set aside for Pahari Speaking People (PSP) in 2020. Then, Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) were also brought into the ambit of the reservation fold by granting it a 10 per cent reservation, which was deducted from RBA’s. Finally, the PSPs were given a separate 10 per cent quota under ST pushing the ST bulge to 20.
Now, this wheel works like this: 8 per cent for SC, 20 per cent for ST, 10 per cent for EWS, 10 per cent for RBA, 8 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBC), and 4 per cent for ALC/IB, totalling 60 per cent. Then there are horizontal reservations – 6 per cent of seats for ex-servicemen and 4 per cent for (PWDs). These reservations are distributed across all vertical categories including STs, SCs and the open merit category. Interestingly, if a reserved category candidate gets into the top merit ranking, the candidate automatically moves to the open merit category and the resultant vacancy is filled by another reserved category candidate.
There has not been a clear number of the populations that enjoy the reservations. The last census put the number of SCs in Jammu and Kashmir at 924991 people, which is 7.38 per cent of the entire population in the erstwhile state. The STs, then comprising Gujjar/Bakerwal, Gaddi, and Sippis were 1493229. The last census suggests that while 1135196 people speak Gojri in Jammu and Kashmir, only 977860 speak Pahari as their mother tongue. A general belief is that all reserved categories put together may not make making even one-third of the population across Jammu and Kashmir.
The Politics
There is not a single voice in Jammu and Kashmir that opposes the idea of reservation. Too many people are on the wrong side of the opportunities for a varied set of reasons. The only demand is that they should be fairly given a share in opportunities strictly as per the population composition in Jammu and Kashmir. These lists by the recruiting agencies have lit a fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s youth bulge. Only a bit of it is visible on social media and the feeling on the ground indicates the youth see it as a deliberate attempt to deny them the rightful spaces within their careers and governance.
Unlike recent past, there are people who have been elected in a hugely participated election. They might be powerless but they have emerged the new post offices for the system and have their fingers on the youth’s pulse. That was why the Gupkar, Kashmir’s so-called power street, got active on December 23, when it was being seen as if playing host to a sort of PAGD revival on reservations. It has triggered a serious political controversy, especially within the ruling JKNC.
This all started during the assembly election campaigning. As the debate pushed the political class closer to realities, JKNC MP (Central Kashmir) Agha Ruhullah Mehdi one day announced he would not hesitate to protest outside the Chief Minister’s home for the future of the youth. As he was trolled consistently, he finally picked a date after the Lok Sabha session was over. Within hours, the entire political class got an address and an issue. Barring BJP, Peoples Conference and the Jammu Kashmir Apni Party, everybody ensured they were on Gupkar, visible and vocal.
An Embarrassment
Nobody sees the reservation issue as a smaller one. However, there are loud voices about why Agha chose a symbolic protest over a plain talk with the Chief Minister who is also Vice President of his party. In JKNC, it was seen as Agha breaking the party discipline and belittling the leadership. It is being seen as inducing a crisis for a Chief Minister who is still trying to figure out how to make a balance between the landslide mandate he got and the lack of authority that he faces as Chief Minister of a federally governed Union territory.
While the protest was going on, Omar sent his son out and then a group of protesting students went in. They had tea with the Chief Minister who told them his concerns on the issue and assured them that something must come out within the next six months. He told them that while a subcommittee has just started its work and the reservation issue has been challenged in the High Court, his government has not ignored or swept it under the carpet. This was announced by Agha and other politicians after the group came out. They, however, did not tell anybody that the Chief Minister had suggested to them that they should have preferred meeting him directly rather than going for a protest.
The government has already constituted a sub-committee comprising members of the cabinet. Seemingly, this committee has no answer. A few people do not have enough information to process and decide for a huge population. There have been suggestions that the government should have constituted a larger committee in which all sections of the society and communities could have been represented through political beings, retired officers, possible high court judges and subject experts. They could have finished their job in a time-bound manner and offered the government a clear way out about how to move ahead. Maybe that still happens but will the government halt the recruitment process, something they were pushing to move fast after taking over? There are too many demands at ground zero and the government may require addressing the issues faster.
Following Up
On the political front, the Gupkar protest might have had political objectives but, on the face of it, it did convey an almost united concern. There were, however, two deliberate actions that made the otherwise not-so-innocuous event into a festering tension. One was the Chief Minister uploading Rudyard Kipling’s poem that the colonial poet, termed racist by his critiques, penned to offer ideas about how to navigate life’s challenges with grace and composure, offering wisdom on how to remain balanced in success and failure, withstand adversity, and uphold integrity. He uploaded this while the protest was still going on. The second development involved Salaman Sagar hitting Agha for indiscipline and offering a platform for the party’s “enemies”.
A day later, Agha uploaded a speech by civil rights activist, Malcolm X to take the debate further. Using the famous House Negro and Field Negro speech, he commented at its conclusion: “And today, you still have house Negroes and field Negroes. I’m a field Negro.” This might not have impacted the electors in Budgam and Ganderbal but too many people who follow the two from Delhi to Srinagar understood what it means and how the two have failed to bury the electoral hatchet even after making it to the best of the positions post-elections. For many years, Agha has been very vocal on issues and has placed on the record his dislike for his party’s passive response to the developments post-2019.
A few days later, when Agha called a government meeting, it was boycotted by almost all JKNC lawmakers except one. The same day, a photograph circulated on social media showed Omar with most of the lawmakers with him.
The two ‘young’ men – Omar 54 and Agha 48 (according to Google), have the right to their politics. They know the art of showing each other their place. For the time being, however, they may require sitting together – even face to face, and hunt a solution for the issue, they know, has the potential of undoing them and their politics.
