K N Pandita

On 24th of March, the Government of the UT of J&K issues comprehensive instructions disallowing the Government employees from misusing the social media particularly when it smacks of criticising, defaming or maligning the Union or the UT Government. The orders are clear and unambiguous.

This action of the Government may be contested by some sections of media with a penchant for always trying to catch the Government on the wrong foot. Obviously, a lively debate is likely to spring from this definitive action of the Government.

Going through the rules or instruction contained in the said order, the first impression that one gets is that these are not in any way new or unknown rules and directives. Take for instance, the rules and regulations governing Government employees or what is known as civil service rules. These rules have been in vogue right from the days of the rule of the Maharajas of Kashmir. From time to time, additions and amendments to these rules have been made whenever a need to do so was felt. Almost every Government employee, on whatever post he or she is placed, is somehow aware of the broad feature of discipline they are required to observe. In a sense, the Government has not brought in any new policy or precept to ensure that propriety is not thrown to winds by a high or a low rank Government employee.

If this is the situation, the question arises what was the need for the UT Government to issue clear-cut and emphatic reiteration of the existing rules? This question may be debated in the intellectual and journalistic circles in the Union Territory of J&K or outside the J&K, in other parts of the country. Even legal luminaries may be tempted to reflect on it disinterestedly.

The Government can claim justification for reiterating the desk book rules in an aggressively decisive tone for two reasons which the civil society needs to keep in mind.

The first reason is that during nearly three decades and half, J&K has met with erosion of general norms of discipline which every Government employee is supposed to be aware of and observe as routine. Let us be frank that during the period of chaos and turmoil, no Government had either the will or the guts to enforce the norms of propriety and rules of discipline as was expected of them. As the history of Kashmir terrorism and religious extremism reveals, even sections of governing paraphernalia turned their eyes sideways when gross irregularity and breach of the rules of conduct were becoming rampant.

This was partly because of the threat and intimidation that flowed brazenly from the rank and file of terrorists and fundamentalists and partly because of unstable integrity of political and administrative echelons. Some of the killings of Government employees were the result of the victims refusing to tow the line of the gun-wielding goons.

In this process, a culture has developed among the state employees that there is no answerability and they can do or say what suits them to get the pound of flesh. The Government appears to have understood the roots of the malaise and hence the ominous instructions. Though belated, the dawning of the realization on the Government is welcome.

The second and equally important reason is the incredible reach and expansion of the social media in recent years. In the name of freedom of speech and expression, many social media platforms have misused the facility provided by the Government. It is not a surprise to say that the social media platform cannot be exonerated of certain corrupt practices which while helping the operators with pecuniary benefits have caused immense damage to the society at large. Some social scientists are of the view that degradation in our moral standards is also attributable to the misuse of social media.

It is no twisting of facts to say that sections of social media have been working more in the interests of our adversaries than in national interests. I am reminded of an atrocious photograph of physical torture of a woman splashed by the Time magazine on its cover page with the caption saying Indian security personnel torturing a woman in Kashmir. On firm protest by the Indian representative and also on the pressure brought by the NGOs in Geneva (I was also one among the protestors), an enquiry was conducted and it was found that the photo was not about a Kashmiri woman but an African woman.

It is very unfortunate, that in the big sedition that was carried out in Kashmir for nearly three decades, the irresponsible and inimical social media wilfully oiled the machine of sedition. In 1990, the shameful slogan asking the Pandits to leave Kashmir without their womenfolk was generated by a local vernacular media.

It is nothing new to say that many Government employees had become victims of an obsession of accusing, maligning and condemning the union Government institutions including the security forces and the Indian army on social media platforms. They used to twist the truth, fabricate falsehood and whip up emotions among the viewers. In this chaotic situation, those who wanted to raise the voice of sanity, were brazenly threatened and even eliminated. May journalists in the valley had to pay the price with their precious lives.

In final analysis Reiteration of the rules and regulations and the norms of propriety and discipline publicized through Government medium are welcome to cope with the situation facing the polity. However the multi-billion dollar question is whether the Government has the adequate and dedicated manpower and the requisite paraphernalia to enforce the directive in letter and spirit. It will be a horrible thing if the Government fails to inflict punitive punishment in cases proved to be of blatant and wilful disregard of the rules. The Government will have to deal the culprits with an iron hand. It must have worked out the entire fallout and after effect of the discipline enforcing policy.