The Unemployed MLA |
The ruling National Conference has received a mandate in Jammu and Kashmir that few had anticipated. Power brings its own arithmetic, and the arithmetic in the government is now uncomfortable. The Chief Minister has a Cabinet-rank advisor, yet the number of ministers is capped at ten. Beyond those ten berths, the party must find ways to keep a large number of its elected members busy, relevant and content. For the party leadership, this has become a genuine headache. It is also a question of governance that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be asking.
Politics is a profession, and like every profession, its ladder is climbed slowly. Every Member of the Legislative Assembly enters the House with the ambition of becoming a minister, and in a democracy that ambition is legitimate. Every MLA is, in his own mind, a prospective Chief Minister. There is nothing wrong with this. A young graduate who joins a bank hopes to become its chairman one day, and a civil servant dreams of becoming a secretary to the government. Why should an elected representative be denied the same aspiration?
The problem lies in how our political parties are structured. Many of them function much like private limited companies. The promoter, or party chief, holds the right to decide who rises and who does not. Top slots go to the family or to trusted nominees, and the rest of the members are expected to wait for their turn, often indefinitely. This is not unique to one party, but the Abdullah family’s political journey across generations shows how the same model has been carried forward. Each generation has inherited not just the party but the expectation that leadership will remain within the family circle. Those who have served the party for years now ask a simple question: why not me?
The cabinet reshuffle has become the ritual answer to that question. Yet a reshuffle is more often a tool to accommodate MLAs than an instrument of better development. Ministers are........