Srinagar, June 29 -- For decades, Jammu & Kashmir has witnessed governments come and go, alliances emerge and collapse, slogans change, and manifestos get rewritten. Yet one political tradition has remained remarkably consistent: the endless exchange of blame. Every party claims to have inherited a mess. Every opposition insists the government has failed. Every ruling dispensation reminds citizens of the mistakes of its predecessors. Somewhere between accusations and counter-accusations, governance itself quietly slips into the background.

The tragedy is not that politicians disagree. Democracy thrives on disagreement. The tragedy is that disagreement has become a substitute for governance. Public debate today is less about solving probl...