On New Year’s Eve, Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu unveiled the J&K Bank calendar for 2017. Every year this time around, people in huge crowds jostle to grab their copy of the calendar. But this year, there is no such excitement. In fact, public reaction is shocking. People look disheartened and social media is outraged.
But why the discontentment? Titled as Pride of Paradise, the calendar features 12 achievers from across the state. But their selection has not gone down well in public circles. Many say by glorifying twelve, the bank has disheartened thousands if not necessarily millions.
Let’s go through at the profiles of these achievers and decide.
Six of them are from the field of sports. These include Tajamul Islam, the 8–year-old-girl World Kickboxing Championship and 7-year-old Hashim Mansoor who won the Asian Youth Karate Championship in Delhi.
Others include ace cyclist Akbar Khan and army officer Lt Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal who became the first officer from J&K to scale Mount Everest thrice. Another Army officer, Chain Singh, who represented India at Olympics at the Rio, also features in the calendar. The sixth face is a physically challenged sportsman Chandeep Singh who despite losing both his arms in a mishap won the bronze medal at the 7th All India Roller Skating Championship in Mussoorie.
IAS topper Dr Shah Faesal and Kashmir-born US-based scientist Dr Rouf Banday who is part of the team that uncovered an inheritable genetic factor that heightens the risk of cancer, also feature in the calendar.
Three personalities are from the field of arts which includes Santoor maestro Abhay Sopori. Painters Insha Manzoor, and Sanjay Saraf, who are differently-abled. Engineer-turned-innovator Sonam Wanhchuk who won the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise for “innovative thinking and dynamism”, also features in the calendar.
But then there are some apparent flaws with the selection. The J&K Bank has essentially been about empowerment of the entrepreneurs. Shockingly, not a single business face features on the calendar. There’s equally no one from the field of literature or tourism, something which this state is famous for.
But then what was the yardstick for selection? Wasn’t any young artisan who weaves the famous Kashmiri carpet or shawl worth gracing the “Wall of Fame.” Or, will such unsung heroes need a foreign stamp to get recognition back home. Is the achievement only about a big brand, job or money?
Couldn’t some shikara wala, known for generations of hospitality, make it to the list? Was some farmer or orchardist, know for exemplary contribution in growing Kashmiri apples or saffron not worth the list. And why cannot someone running a small venture ever be a success story?
A meme of the calendar being floated on social media
There’s no denying the fact that Sonam Wangchuk is a globally acclaimed personality, who made all of us proud but should this 51-year-old figure in the list of young achievers. After all, the bank had invited nominations to honor 12 young achievers.
These and many similar questions have left people disheartened. Call it fate or coincidence, the J&K Bank Chairman Parvez Ahmed Nengroo went ahead with this idea when the ruling Peoples Democratic Party was in news for its iconic slogan: PDP for youth, PDP for change.
The J&K Bank, however, has denied any political pressure for selecting the “young” faces. “Not at all, nobody intervened,” Sajad Bazaz, Incharge Corporate Communications J&K Bank told InUth.
When told that social media is outraged, the banker had an interestingly reply. “Feedback will vary from person to person. Social media is neither controlled nor refined, everybody writes anything, much the way people chitchat at barber shops.”
On why no entrepreneur features among the achievers, Bazaz bluntly asks, “is there any such outstanding figure in the state?”
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