JKAS statistical results validated party’s reservations stance: Lone

Lone said the single biggest problem in reservations still remains in not understanding the structural issues but a pattern of regional inequity hardwired into existing policy

J&K Peoples Conference president and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone on Saturday said that the recently published JKAS statistical results have validated his party’s position on reservations in near-entirety, reaffirming arguments he had made on the floor of the assembly and in earlier data presentations on social media.

Handwara MLA Sajad Lone. (File)

“The JKAS statistically results endorse almost every single word that I uttered on behalf of my party, in the Assembly,” Lone said. “The statistical projections almost overlap.”

Lone said the single biggest problem in reservations still remains in not understanding the structural issues but a pattern of regional inequity hardwired into existing policy. “It is a problem of regional imbalance, perpetuated by an extremely unfair and biased reservation policy.”

He said that as long as we do not properly diagnose the disease and accept the disease as it exists, no remedy is possible.

PC chairman laid out three conditions he said were non-negotiable for any credible path forward. The first was political will — “a government with some spine.” The second was a commitment to evidence-based governance, arguing that authorities must use available resources to conduct rigorous, data-backed research.

“Governments especially in trying times like when we are a UT, can’t base their recommendations on gossip,” he said. The third condition, he argued, was intellectual honesty at the level of government and the broader polity — “the intellectual capability to understand the inherent structural imbalances, based on regionalism.”