The Myth Of The Spotless File

Kashmir praises spotless files while citizens wait for justice, roads, and services. Action, not inaction, defines integrity.

- Khair Ull Nissa Shah

Integrity in public service has never been about staying untouched. It is about standing up, deciding, and delivering when it matters.

But in Kashmir, the officer most praised today is often the one who does the least.

They keep their reputation spotless, desk tidy, and conscience untested. They hide behind rules and fear, avoiding action. In a place that desperately needs bold leadership, that kind of “virtue” can slow everything down.

People don’t feel integrity in clean desks or careful rules. They feel it when hospitals function, roads are completed, and grievances are addressed.

That kind of delivery has become rare in Kashmir.

What we have instead are officers who believe doing nothing is proof of honesty. A culture of “safe governance” now defines the system, where avoiding error matters more than achieving results.

Across administrative corridors, the refrain is the same: We are honest. But honesty is not abstention. It is execution.

The tragedy of today’s officialdom is that the uncorrupted have become the unwilling. They delay, defer, and disappear behind procedure. They mistake paperwork for ethics and hesitation for virtue.

The World Bank’s Governance Indicators make this distinction clear.

“Control of corruption” and “government effectiveness” are measured separately because a system can be clean and still useless. Some of the least corrupt countries in the world perform poorly on service delivery because they confuse purity with performance.

The absence of theft doesn’t guarantee the presence of accountability. And in Kashmir, that confusion has become institutional.

A few years ago, I saw how this contradiction takes shape in real life. A businessman, later a politician, bribed law-enforcers, a tehsildar, and even legal members. He plotted arson and an attack on a young widow with two children. The evidence was overwhelming, and the witnesses credible. But he walks free.