Analysis:
3.0.1 Analysis of the Preliminary Inquiry
Following the discovery of migrant persons in the building, the preliminary inquiry uncovered the illegal occupation of the Patwarkhana (Office of the village-level revenue accountant), by a private migrant labor supervisor in village Kathera. It established the misuse of the Government property and was systematic evolved issue due to lack of effective oversight mechanism. Moreover, the complacency of the villagers to facilitate the stay of illegal occupants in the building without realizing the intended purpose of the building indicated the lack of awareness. They did not provide the free accommodation to the illegal occupant in their own houses but encouraged the unauthorized stay of the migrants in the Government property reflected their selfish behavior. Lastly, the researcher recalled the experiential knowledge of local culture, dress, dialect, pattern of architecture to discover the irregularities. It underscores the necessity for researchers to be fully acquainted with the local cultural environment in which they are operating and keep their curious and inquiring mind active. Venturing in the field would enable them to test and enhance their field-research skills.
3.0.2 Analysis of the Ethnographic Fieldwork
The defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana (Office of the Village-level revenue accountant) by the occupants resulted from the lack of the effective oversight mechanism in the revenue department since the building was constructed in the early years of 2000s to provide the services of the revenue department to the people in the heart of the village. However, no official ever turned up in the village to make the newly constructed office operational till 2019. Moreover, the complacency of the successive elected village representatives could not be ruled out because they never took any remedial action. Similarly, it also accentuated the lack of assertive approach of the rural citizens to solve their problems. The participatory observation of the researcher in casual discussion with people suggested their interests in the national and international defense affairs of the country and lack of interest in issues of the village due to the pervasive usage and influence of the social media. The social media and the propagandistic media had hijacked their collective psyche to the extent that they had forgotten their relationship with their immediate surroundings.
Analysis of the Landscape of the Field of Investigation
The field functionaries of the revenue department capitalized on the limited public transport and the poor road infrastructure of the village Kathera and chose not to operationalize their newly constructed office (Patwarkhana). Similarly, the people continued to suffer and preferred visiting the main town of Kathua for their revenue-department related works but never protested for opening the defunct building. They suffered individually but not acted collectively to end their suffering.
Analysis of the Cartography of the village Kathera
The cartography of the village Kathera established that the Patwarkhana (Office of the Village-level revenue accountant) is situated along the bank of seasonal river “Sahar” and is surrounded by the buildings of Government Girls Middle School Kathera, Higher Secondary School Kathera and the House of elected village Representatives called Panchayat Ghar). All these buildings belonged to Government Institutions.
Analysis of the Segmentation of the Groups based on their characteristics and sanctioned power relative to the Problem-Causal Group
The G5 is the most powerful group vested with the vast sanctioned administrative powers and the problem causal group as well. It consists of the General Administration Department of the District and has the additional charge of the revenue department. Moreover, it exercises the superintendence over all other government staff departments of the district.
Thus, G5>G4>G3>G2>G1
Where G1 stands for individual Households
G2 stands for Village Panchayat of Kathera
G3 represents the other surrounding Panchayats and has components like G1 and G2
G4 shows the employees of the staff department
G5 is for the Revenue Department (General Administration Department that exercises superintendence over staff departments of the District)
Analysis of the video recording of the Community of Interest:
The featuring participants in the video clip assertively narrated their sufferings due to the carelessness of the revenue officials and confirmed the theft of the water pump and water tank of the building. Further, they confirmed the defunct Patwarkhana and the stay of the private labor supervisor and his family in the building. Segmentation of the stakeholders and the subsequent analysis enabled the researcher to identify the key trait of their independence and assertive attitude in their personality by spending time with them during the field ethnography. Moreover, the researcher had won the trust and their confidence that made the entire exercise easier.
3.0.3 Analysis of the results of the Primary phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation
The experimental subjects perceived the survey report in the form of a complaint and did not take cognizance of the matter and did intricate the reported matter in the chain of command to create diffusion of responsibility. They falsely implicated the officials of the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY-An agency of the Public Works Department, Roads & Building, Jammu and Kashmir) by stating that the latter are living in the building to cover up the illegal occupation of the building by a private labor supervisor.
The Deputy Commissioner Kathua adopted a very lenient approach and forwarded the report to the Tehsildar for immediate reply vide letter number DCK/CMP/55/(Complaints)/2019-20/69 on 25/03/2019. The reply submitted by the Tehsildar Vide communication number K/OQ/2019-20/69 dated 25.04.2019 addressed to the Deputy Commissioner cited the report of Naib-Tehsildar which employs circumlocutory words to obfuscate and double bind the experimenter by creating anonymity about the authority having the administrative control over the building. At the same time, the report falsely attributes the closure to the stay of the PMGSY officials and involves other departments to complicate the issue and double-bind the experimenter due to the following features:
The report submitted by Naib-Tehsildar does not disclose the name of the concerned agency responsible for not handing over the building of Patwarkhana to the revenue department.
The report submitted by Naib-Tehsildar was easily accepted by Tehsildar and DC Kathua which mentions the unsafe conditions for keeping the revenue record there. It disclosed the stay of officers of PMGSY (Agency of the PWD Department of J&K Government) in the Patwarkhana. The inquiry report falsely attributed the closure of Patwarkhana to the stay of PMGSY officials to complicate and cover up their collective carelessness regarding the issue.
The report submitted by the Naib-Tehsildar employs carefully drafted double bind communication by presenting circumlocutory words to obfuscate the readers and maintains deliberate anonymity about the authority responsible for not handing over the building of Patwarkhana to the revenue department. Moreover, the report falsely attributes the closure of the Patwarkhana due to the stay of officials of Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana in an attempt to cover up the illegal occupation of the building by a migrant labor family and calls the occupants as PMGSY officials to implicate another department to shield the collective negligence of revenue functionaries. Without performing an analysis, the Tehsildar and then Deputy Commissioner accepted the report and assigned closure to the issue which establishes connivance due to their group affinity. They did not seek custody of the building if it lies with another agency since it was the legal duty of the District Development Commissioner to open up the defunct Patwarkhana in the public interests and enable them to access the revenue department services at their doorstep. By not doing so, the subjects refused the treatment and became drivers of the bystander effect, who chose to linger on the issue and evaded their responsibility for an indefinite period for their vested interests. Hence, the survey report subjected to experiment stands validated.
3.0.4 Analysis of the Findings of the Meeting held with the Block Development Officer, Kathua on 11.07.2019 to inquire the Handover status of the building of Patwarkhana situated in Village Kathera
The informal interview conducted during the inquiry meet with the Block Development Officer, Kathua on 11.07.2019 revealed that the response of the experimental subjects regarding the lack of the custody of the building of Patwarkhana was a deceptive lie to cover up their negligence and evade responsibility as the building was defunct, dilapidated and was illegally occupied by a private labor supervisor. In fact, they were the custodians of the building.
3.0.5 Analysis of results of the secondary phase of the Single-Blind Experiment
The factual accuracy and supplementary analytical survey report convinced and prompted the experimental subjects to pass the directives to Tehsildar Kathua on July 20, 2019, vide letter number DCK/CMP/(Complaints)/2019-20/513-14 for necessary action concerning the defunct and illegally occupied building of Patwarkhana in village Kathera. However, the subjects continued to exercise inaction and the problem persisted despite the completion of three phases of the Back to Village Programme initiated by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to improve the rural governance. Intervention of the National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi had no effect on the deviant functionaries of the revenue department. After one year and five months, they pasted the same evasive reply assigned by the experimental subjects after one year and five months in the district administration exhausted their options to act independently. By doing so, they entrapped themselves since retracting from the written statements was impossible for the subjects. It proved the following facts:
The Action Taken Report sought by the NHRC-New Delhi in Case No. 114/9/7/2020 on September 17, 2020 regarding the defunct Patwarkhana did not make any difference as the subjects did not care about the notice and instead of showing promptness to deal with the public matters chose to connive and copied pasted the old evasive reply after one year and five months on January 1, 2021. In this way, the attempt to positively control the desired outcome of the secondary phase of the experimentation phased failed completely. It was a huge setback to the researcher.
It established a high level of departmental understanding between the deviant group since the DC posted the old evasive reply without even caring that his office No. DCK/CMP/(Complaints)/2019-20/513-14 dated July 19, 2019 had recommended the case for immediate necessary action to Tehsildar Kathua.
In this way, the same officer dismissed his past directive. It proved brazen lawlessness and gross professional misconduct done by a civil servant in contravention of the Constitution of India. It also proved that all the revenue functionaries from the lower-level Patwari, Girdawar to the superior officers Naib-Tehsildar, Tehsildar, Assistant Commissioner Revenue, Additional Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner were involved in the collaborative exercise to linger on the issue for an indefinite time.
Confounding variables also caused negative final experimental results in the form of the persistence of the problem. Thus, it is crucial to highlight the underlying confounding variables affecting the experiment and the final outcome and strengthening the deviant behavior of the experimental subjects. The three critical factors identified are:
(a) Imposition of Blanket suspension on the Internet services across J&K post abrogation of Article 370: To prevent the situation from flaring up and protecting lives, the government suspended the internet for several months across J&K. The deviant group took this ban as an arbitrariness enhancement exercise with brazen impunity.
(b) Covid-19 Induced Lockdown: The sudden announcement and imposition of the Covid-19 Lockdown across the country in the first quarter of 2020 and the subsequent mobility restrictions on the people further strengthened the collective belief of the deviant group subjected to experimentation to act defiant in contravention to all the laws and Constitution of India as the district functionaries were imposing restrictions on the mobility of the people to restrict the spread of infections.
(c) Lack of Elected Government: The erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir came under the President rule on November 21, 2018, following the dissolution of the elected State Assembly by the Governor and since then it is reeling under the President rule and functioning under the state-run bureaucracy. From November 2018-May 2024, there is no elected government. The elected Government by the people is accountable and the political leaders remain cautious in the public-centered matters and are aware that any complacency exercised can throw them out of the power and they may lose the next elections. On the other hand, the state-sponsored bureaucrats are public servants, who remain in the public service till their retirement. Hence, they do not think like political leaders. Lack of elected leaders make them more powerful and render the public disempowered.
Figure: 75 Order of the Dissolution of the elected assembly of Jammu and Kashmir Source-J&K Governor’s Secretariat ©Project- C.R.S.P.M.S/SBFECS/01/2019-24
The J&K Reorganization Act of 2019 divided the erstwhile Princely State of J&K into two union territories - Union Territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh and brought a drastic change in the legal administrative framework.
Thus, the deviant experimental subjects or revenue functionaries in District Kathua capitalized on the three factors and became more arrogant and apathetic than ever before.
3.0.6 Analysis of the results of the Tertiary phase of Single-Blind Experimentation
The deviant subjects of the revenue department in Kathua had exhausted their threshold limit in the previous two phases of experimentation (2019-2021) by repeatedly exercising arbitrariness and collusion, characterized by persistent deliberate inaction regarding the defunct Patwarkhana in the village of Kathera. Furthermore, they entrapped themselves by passing a directive for necessary action initially in the secondary phase of the experimentation, and later gave the same response as in the final results of the Primary phase of the experimentation. By doing so, they dismissed their own directive, and the problem remained unresolved.
Post experimental surveillance of the administrative activities of the deviant subjects, along with the official rebuttal given by the Executive Engineer of PMGSY Kathua provided qualitative evidence against them. This enabled the Research Practitioner to conduct final experiment with the desired results.
This phase involved exerting more control on the experiment by strategically applying independent variables to create a Prisoner’s Dilemma for the powerful deviant subjects. Doing this required creating a real-life situation and making them share evidence against the incumbents and their predecessors for their collective wrongdoings and professional misconduct responsible for the defunct and illegally occupied building of Patwarkhana, Kathera.
The situation for them was like- If they provide documentary evidence to the experimenter about the past two phases of the Single-Blind experimentation, then the incumbents and predecessors of the experimental group would become legal offenders. On the other hand, if they suppress the requisite documents and form a collaboration to protect their collective interests and departmental image, it would be beneficial for them and vice-versa. In the previous two phases of the experimentation (2019-2021), the deviant group exhibited a high degree of group affinity characterized by their collusion, complacency, apathy and inaction. Hence, it was likely to remain constant in the final phase of the experiment. However, the trail of qualitative evidence collected against them in form of application of the independent variables was guaranteed to give a desired outcome after triangulating them.
The tertiary phase of the experiment conducted in the first quarter of 2022 triangulated and compelled the deviant subjects of the revenue department, Kathua to open the defunct Patwarkhana and they stated that the field office in Village Kathera has become operational on March, 31, 2022. However, they suppressed the official records generated during the previous two phases of the Single-blind experimentation to cover up the collective complacency, negligence and professional misconduct of the incumbents and their predecessors from 2019-2022. Third experiment necessitated them to extend cooperation to each other to protect their collective interests and they colluded again to suppress the official records since sharing evidence against themselves was irrational and impossible for them. Similarly, it was beyond the control of the experimenter to prevent them from extending cooperation to each other as the experimental subjects were powerful administrative officers of the district, Kathua.
They could have provided the complete information only if they had discharged their official duties diligently with transparency. However, it was not the case. So, they failed to ensure transparency as ensuring it would have caused a major embarrassment. The final experiment created a Prisoner's Dilemma and compelled them to cover up the negligence of the incumbents and their predecessors to protect their departmental image. Moreover, they wanted to withhold the information and prompt the researcher to approach the Central Information Commission. However, the purpose of the research was not to cause legal engagement. Indeed, the printed formats of the primary and secondary phase experiment tools were the key components of the study and obtaining those had become difficult due to non-cooperation from the selfish deviant experimental subjects.
3.0.7 Analysis of the Post-Tertiary Monitoring Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation
The official confirmation provided by the deviant revenue functionaries regarding the functioning of defunct Patwarkhana was unreliable in the light of their documented professional misconduct. Hence, the monitoring phase lasted more than 25 months (till May 2024), involving repeated field visits and inquires with the community of interest. These visits revealed that the Patwarkhana was merely functional on paper and is still defunct. The experimental subjects confirmed the functioning of Patwarkhana on March 31, 2022 compelled by the unfavorable experimental conditions that created Prisoner’s Dilemma for them. However, they continued to exercise inaction and kept the Patwarkhana locked and defunct.