When it comes to cutting ribbons and pulling the drawstrings to reveal commemorative plaques, politicians of Kashmir, of all hues fall head over heels to get photographed inaugurating developmental works.
The ministers and MLAs transform even routine maintenance tasks carried out by the developmental departments into high-profile spectacles complete with garlands, posters, slogan-shouting crowds, official entourages, and social media photo-ops invariably captioned as “delivering development.”
The style of feudal patronage politics — a hierarchical system of political loyalty where powerful elites provide favours, or benefits to subordinates (vassals or clients) in exchange for support– is not unique to J&K but is a widespread feature of Indian democracy. However, J&K stands out for its particularly “petty” scale of work and “grand” ceremony with monarchic pageantry and an attitude of regal benevolence. These elaborate ribbon-cutting ceremonies reflect a deeply entrenched form of politics that resembles medieval feudalism blended with modern clientelism.
In the new diarchic framework of governance, where the elected representatives are disempowered, it has reached absurd levels. The legislators are going around inaugurating rewired transformers, repaired local drains, and refurbished toilet blocks with much fanfare.
Historically too, more attention has always been paid to the engravings on the plaque rather than the functionality and utility of the asset being inaugurated. Whose names appear, in what order, and with what font size is of greater importance than the specification of the work done or asset installed.
A plaque on the entrance of a public space is a classic example of this. The gold-coloured letters engraved on a black stone reads: “Jogger’s Park, inaugurated by Jenab Omar Abdullah, Hon’ble Chief Minister, J&K, in the presence of Jenab Farooq Abdullah, Hon’ble Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Jenab Sham Lal Sharma, Hon’ble Minister Health, Horticulture and Floriculture, and Jenab Nasir Aslam Wani, Minister of State Home, PHE, Tourism and Revenue and Jenab Javed Ahmad Dar, Minister of state for R&B, Mech engineering. Year 2012”. A few more names on the plaque and the park would have gotten crowded!
Such self-promotion prioritizes visibility and personal branding over policy implementation and delivery. It thrives in environments with weak institutions, where symbolic gestures overshadow impactful long-term initiatives. Besides allowing leaders to cultivate loyalty among constituents by positioning themselves as benevolent patrons dispensing “gifts” to the voters. Such events perpetuate a dynamic where politics revolves around optics, short-term handouts.
Also, decades of insurgency, and militancy has profoundly reshaped the feudalised patronage politics of ribbon-cutting inaugurations in Kashmir. It has evolved from a purely localized spectacle into a more centralized, security-infused tool of state integration and narrative control.
This tokenism is further exaggerated in J&K because it was a survival tactic in a conflict zone, where grand projects were scarce due to fiscal constraints and violence disruptions, fostering a cycle of short-term handouts over systemic reform. This garnering short-term political capital being preferred over long-time transformation thus becomes a norm. This must be replaced by norms prioritizing administrative accountability over personalist symbolism.
These ritualized events involving foundation-stone laying or inauguration and public dedication of a facility serve as a potent site for the performative enactment of state power in democracies. The frenzy of ribbon cuttings ceremonies by the unelected rulers embodies symbolic capital, legitimizing them through visible manifestations of development while masking the underlying power asymmetries.
Post-2019, with a centralizing power under a Lieutenant Governor and amplifying federal control, patronage politics didn’t vanish. Instead, it has morphed: traditional local intermediaries lost sway as land allocation, job schemes, and project approvals bypassed Kashmiri politicians making bureaucracy stand in for them. Inaugurations became orchestrated events under programs like “Back to Village” (2019–2023), which funnelled central funds into on-spot works (e.g., 7,000 micro-projects) with photo-ops emphasizing normalcy through development optics. This diluted the feudal flavour, being less about the individual MLAs as benevolent patrons, and more about the Centre as the ultimate dispenser. J&K exemplifies a hyper-centralized variant, transforming the Union Territory into a laboratory for nationalist developmentalism.
At another level, becoming a social norm, this trend has resulted in competition for ceremonial glory and self-glorification beyond the political arena. Recently the overzealous Waqf chief, prioritizing politics over piety, placed a commemorative plaque in Dargah. Clearly an intrusion using political muscle in a space that belongs to faith and devotion, it is tantamount to misusing reverence for propaganda. Not to be outdone, the new zealots of National Conference have got into the act to erect a canopy at Bab-e-Salam, the point where faithful symbolically step from the ordinary material world into the sanctified spiritual space of the Prophet’s presence. At this sublime and deeply devotional as well as an emotional moment, the faithful will soon be intruded by the local legislator’s benevolence. A “promissory plaque” has been erected in anticipation of the actual Mehrab (canopy) being constructed. For now, only the foundation stone has been laid.
Such tamashas have made J&K’s optics even more escapist, prioritizing spectacle to mask unresolved grievances of stakeholders, be it the youth, farmers, traders, and businesses. While centralization may have professionalized some delivery, it too entrenches a hybrid patronage: less feudal, more performative, but equally evasive of root causes.
The elected leaders, on the other hand, use such rituals to deploy public goods as electoral currency, reinforcing patronage hierarchies. Of course, driven by the ephemeral vote banks, the inaugurations can be seen as a clientelist theatre. All over, not just in Kashmir, public works inaugurations are deeply embedded in electoral clientelism, a dyadic exchange wherein politicians trade discretionary benefits for votes.
This has serious implications on structure of capital formation for developmental policy. For it distorts the public works programs as these “vote-trading structures” with public works become “particularistic goods” targeted at loyalists. The only conceivable benefit is that it has spawned yet another flourishing enterprise of event management completely dependent on government business.
The executive aggrandizement of developmental works must be stopped. Like in other mature democracies, be it the United Stated or the United Kingdom, federalism and professionalized bureaucracies insulate public works from politics and normative restraints dilute high-level political theatrics. Trump’s “Infrastructure Week”, for instance, devolved into executive orders streamlining permits, not ceremonial shovels. A modern political culture and an impersonal governance system need to temper practices with more programmatic welfare delivery, reducing the overt feudalism, and localized favouritism.
Tail Piece:
Way back in 1951, the foundation stone of the University of Jammu and Kashmir was laid by Syed Meerak Shah Kashani. Even though reins of power were firmly with the state political leadership, they chose a socially revered Sufi, Fakeer-e-Millat, to do the honours for an institution that would shape the lives of generations of Kashmiris. The event, it would appear, was quiet and dignified, laden with hope seeking divine blessings. Full of faith, bereft of any regal show, it was attended by the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and some members of the Constituent Assembly. No plaque exists, as none was made.
The author is a Contributing Editor of Greater Kashmir.