There is much fanfare around the forthcoming session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The calendar provides for seven days of sitting, though the actual legislative business appears to be spread over five fixed days, with one day reserved for obituaries and another day as provisional, if Government business so requires.
The lead question is: are these days enough to address the enormous expectations and everyday concerns of ‘We the people of Jammu and Kashmir’? I believe they are abysmally not.
Jammu and Kashmir needs a Legislature that sits more, deliberates more and delivers more.
Across the Union Territory, thousands of daily wagers, NHM, MGNREGA, contractual employees, CIC operators and other categories of workers have spent decades of the prime of their youth working under uncertainty. Yet we are still struggling to evolve a comprehensive, uniform and sustainable policy on regularisation, employment and wages.
These are not simply abstract policy questions. Rather they intersect the daily lives of the people of J&K. A Legislature is not a ceremonial gathering that assembles periodically where legislators deliver speeches. It is the principal institutional mechanism through which the people’s representatives examine the exercise of executive power.
It should be judged by what happens inside the House. How many uncomfortable questions are asked? How many evasive answers are rejected? How many pending issues are taken to their logical conclusion? How many executive decisions are subjected to legislative scrutiny? How many committees actually function? And, most importantly, how many ordinary citizens see their concerns reflected in the business of the House? All India Speakers’ Conference called for 100 sittings per year. Jammu and Kashmir should not shy away from that benchmark. If 100 days cannot be achieved immediately, let us start the journey. There is another larger constitutional question that also deserves attention. We often hear that the powers and dignity of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature have been diminished. If that is the concern, then the answer cannot merely be political rhetoric. The Legislature must assert itself through its own functioning. Why should the Assembly not sit for longer? Why should elected representatives not have adequate time to question executive decisions, examine policies, scrutinise expenditure and deliberate upon matters affecting the people?
An Executive is an organ of governance; the Legislature is the institution empowered to make laws. Executive instructions cannot casually travel beyond, contradict or dilute the legislative framework.
Nonetheless, from matters concerning fixing daily charges of accommodation of legislators in Legislators Hostels to the implementation of Panchayati Raj provisions asking for allowing Panchayats to themselves do works less than 3 lacs and even matters of fixation of legislative protocol and privileges, questions have arisen about executive instructions breaking Lakshmana Rekhas and wading into areas governed by legislative powers and exclusive prerogatives.
Take, for instance, the provisions concerning Panchayats and the execution of works within the prescribed financial limits. If a rule made under the Panchayati Raj framework provides a particular mechanism, an executive financial instruction cannot simply be allowed to render that legislative framework ineffective without proper legislative scrutiny.
The basic principle is simple: an executive instruction occupies a lower legal pedestal than a law enacted by the Legislature. If there is a conflict, the Legislature must have the opportunity to speak.
Likewise, powers, privileges and protocol are not merely a matter of ceremony. They are a constitutional commitment, rather carry an institutional dignity. The privileges and immunities of a Legislature are meant to protect its functioning and independence. Any alteration of established legislative protocol by executive fiat should naturally invite legislative examination.
And that brings us back to the fundamental issue-we need to discuss, deliberate, deliver and dispense more effectively.
The Assembly has a large pending agenda: discussing audit reports, motions, assurances, departmental responses and matters of urgent public importance. When responses remain sluggish and scrutiny gets compressed into a few days, parliamentary accountability inevitably suffers.
This is not an argument against any government or political party. It is an argument for the Legislature itself.
Jammu and Kashmir is not an ordinary administrative space. It is a sensitive and strategically important part of India, a region whose political developments attract national attention. It is also a land of extraordinary beauty, diversity and immense human resource. Its people deserve a Legislature that matches the scale of their requirements and aspirations.
Less sitting means less scrutiny. Less scrutiny means less deliberation. Less deliberation ultimately means less delivery.
There is tremendous optimism among the people of Jammu and Kashmir. They have expectations from the return of an elected Legislature. They want roads, jobs, wages, education, healthcare, electricity, water, tourism and investment. But beyond these immediate demands, they want something equally important:
They want institutions that listen. This is not about the Opposition versus the Government. It is about the Legislature and its ‘so-attributed-as’ institutional complacency. The Government may have its legislative programme. The Opposition may have its political agenda. But above both stands the larger obligation of the House-to represent the people. Jammu and Kashmir does not need a Legislature that merely speaks more loudly.
It needs one that sits more, studies more, debates more and delivers more.
The Assembly must come out of the calendar and into the lives of the people.
That is how the dignity of the Legislature will be strengthened. That is how democratic institutions will deepen. And that is how the optimism of the people of Jammu and Kashmir can be converted into confidence and as a valuable asset.
