Merit is bleeding while the government dithers, but NEET waits for no one
With NEET counselling about to start, the delay in announcing a revised reservation policy in Jammu and Kashmir is not merely an administrative lapse; it is a blow to meritocracy. A policy vacuum at this stage threatens to replace genuine merit with political indecision, breeding frustration, disillusionment, and irretrievable loss for thousands of deserving aspirants.
Six months have passed since the Omar Abdullah-led government constituted a cabinet subcommittee to review the existing reservation matrix. The report, we are told, has been submitted and is now under legal vetting. Yet, in the absence of any formal declaration or deadline, students find themselves suspended in a state of anxious uncertainty. Worse still, the silence is seen as strategic, a hesitation born of political caution rather than legal constraint.
It is easy to dismiss online outrage or dub it as reactionary. But the numbers reveal a more serious malaise. General category students, reportedly more than 70 per cent of the population in Jammu and Kashmir, now face diminishing opportunities, especially in competitive sectors like postgraduate medical education and jobs. Cases where a candidate ranked 700 fails to secure a seat while another at 91,000 qualifies under reservation are not anomalies; they are fast becoming the norm. This is not about antagonising any reserved group. It is about restoring fairness.
The Chief Minister’s remark about the Open Merit wale betrays a dangerous indifference. Governments are within their rights to uphold constitutional quotas. An elected government with a historically impressive mandate can take up the issue with the federal government about making quotas rational. Less than one-third of the population can not have sweeping rights over the two-thirds of opportunities that the professional course admissions, jobs and routine promotions in the government offer. The Jammu and Kashmir government has the right to revisit the quotes regardless of whether these are mandated by parliament or the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. There is both scope and responsibility to review them with transparency and urgency. The fact that a panel was formed shows the administration acknowledged flaws. The time for action is now.
Merit is not elitism. It is the assurance that hard work will be rewarded fairly. A generation preparing for competitive careers cannot be treated as political collateral. The NEET counselling calendar will not wait for Jammu and Kashmir’s bureaucracy to complete its reviews.
A transparent policy, whatever its content, is better than prolonged opacity. Delay is no longer neutral; it is punitive. If the government is serious about education reform, it must release the revised matrix before the counselling rounds conclude. Otherwise, it risks doing what many fear it already has, presiding over the quiet burial of merit.
