‘Recruitment without reform is betrayal of open merit aspirants’
SRINAGAR: Er. Ehtisham Khan, social and student rights activist and Co‑founder of The Purpose (NGO), has strongly condemned the government’s move to advertise and refer thousands of posts for recruitment across multiple departments without first correcting the deeply flawed reservation policy that the very same government had acknowledged as unjust.
While welcoming recruitment as a necessary step to address Jammu and Kashmir’s alarming unemployment levels, Er. Ehtisham Khan questioned the moral and political credibility of a government that continues to operate under a policy it had promised to rectify before seeking votes from the people.
“Recruitment is not charity; it is a constitutional obligation,” Er. Ehtisham Khan said in a statement issued here. “But recruitment carried out under an unjust framework only multiplies injustice. You cannot promise correction, sit in power for over a year, and then quietly notify posts under the same skewed policy you once called unfair. That is not governance — that is duplicity.”
He noted that the present government came to power after years of political vacuum, riding on the promise of fairness, accountability, and course correction. “Open Merit aspirants believed that relief was finally in sight. Instead, what they are witnessing is systematic exclusion, institutionalized through silence and delay,” he remarked.
Calling out the government’s double standards, Er. Ehtisham Khan said that ministers and party functionaries speak eloquently in interviews about unemployment, empowerment, and justice, while their actions on the ground tell a very different story. “If the reservation policy was unjust yesterday, it does not magically become just today simply because you are in power,” he asserted.
He further stated that every recruitment notification issued under the existing policy permanently alters the future of thousands of deserving candidates. “This is not a temporary loss that can be reversed later. Each batch recruited under an unfair structure closes doors forever for Open Merit youth who have already paid the price of delays, uncertainty, and broken promises,” he said.
“The tragedy is not merely policy failure,” Er. Ehtisham Khan added. “The tragedy is moral failure. A government elected by the people of Open Merit cannot keep buying time while actively implementing the very injustice it vowed to undo.”
He urged the government to immediately pause and reassess recruitments being processed under the current reservation framework and to place a clear, time‑bound roadmap for genuine reform in the public domain. “Transparency delayed is justice denied. The youth deserve clarity, not clever evasion,” he said.
Er. Ehtisham Khan concluded by warning that continued indifference would only deepen public distrust. “People did not vote for excuses. They voted for correction. And if correction is perpetually postponed, history will remember who chose convenience over conscience.”
He further clarified that his concern stems from publicly available information and official statements. “My apprehension is not based on rumours. I have taken note of repeated statements made by the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister and Cabinet Ministers, as well as multiple media reports and news portals, which clearly indicate that thousands of posts from various departments are being referred for recruitment and that fresh advertisements are likely to be issued in the coming days. Recruitment per se is welcome and necessary, but proceeding with it under an admittedly unjust and uncorrected reservation framework is deeply problematic,” he said.
He reiterated that the core issue remains the reservation policy itself. “The primary concern is not the act of recruitment, but the continuation of an unjust reservation policy that the very same government had acknowledged as flawed and promised to rectify. Advertising or referring posts without first addressing this foundational injustice only compounds the harm and irreversibly affects the present and future of Open Merit aspirants,” he added.