Srinagar: Emphasizing that the ongoing elections are not merely about civic amenities, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said on Friday that they are a crucial battle for the J&K’s dignity, honor, and freeing of its innocent youth who are languishing in jails without trials.
She highlighted the plight of the youth languishing in jails without trials, urging voters to favor candidates who empathize with the common Kashmiri.
She said her party had fielded Waheed ur Rahman Parra, the president of the PDP’s youth wing, to become a representative of the youth of J&K.
“The way the youths of J&K are jailed on the basis of suspicion and are tortured, we have chosen a youth from among them. People will elect him and send him to the Parliament where he will advocate for the oppressed prisoners,” she added.
“Waheed was accused of freeing jailed youth, rehabilitating downtrodden families. He himself has come from a humble background, and there is no other person more able than him to represent the people, their real aspirations, and needs in the parliament. He represents those youth who are being inflicted torture, who are being jailed, hounded and ridiculed. Waheed is amongst those youths. Therefore, he will go to parliament and represent those bruised voices there. He will rather become their voice,” Mufti said.
About a notice by the Election Commission authorities to Parra on his remarks about Parliament elections being a referendum, the PDP president alleged the BJP does worse and urged the poll body to take action against the party.
“I think the EC should take note of what the BJP leaders say. They make communal statements, they make such statements which affect the atmosphere in the country, they create Hindu-Muslim tension. They say Muslims will snatch your ‘mangalsutras’ and Muslims are intruders.
“The BJP makes such wrong statements, but the EC does not take notice of those. However, if someone else makes even an ordinary statement, they take notice of that. I am hopeful that Parra will respond to it appropriately,” she said.
The PDP president recounted her efforts to foster cooperation during the tumultuous period surrounding the abrogation of Article 370. However, she expressed disappointment over the lack of consultation from the National Conference (NC) before declaring candidates.
“When Article 370 was about to be abrogated, I strived for unity among different political groups. I approached them all by myself. When NC and PDP formed an alliance, this unnerved the BJP-led government at the Center. At INDIA bloc’s meeting in Mumbai, I reposed my trust in Dr. Farooq Abdullah and declared that he is an octogenarian of the amalgam and he will decide our future strategy.
“It is common sense that whenever our elders have to decide on something, they discuss it first and take everyone on board. However, what Dr. Farooq Abdullah did was shocking. They didn’t even call me once before declaring candidates. Rather, Omar Abdullah called the press conference and declared that PDP is finished and has no say in Jammu and Kashmir’s political landscape. This was unfortunate because our fight was not for the chair.
“If we could have been united, things would have been different. There were three MPs from NC in the parliament when Article 370 was abrogated, what did those three MPs do at that time?” she asked.
“Post-abrogation, unity was the need of the hour, but Omar Abdullah’s assertions stirred the emotions of PDP workers and common masses all across. These workers have been by my side during the most tumultuous times, when even my party was broken. How they could have remained silent over such blatant remarks,” Mufti said.
The PDP president reiterated that the current election is a crusade against injustice and oppression. She also stressed the urgency of addressing the suffocation felt by the common Kashmiri.
“Common Kashmiri is feeling suffocated. No one is allowed to speak. The government wants to present a different picture, claiming tourists are coming in large numbers, but a common Kashmiri is dying every day due to suffocation, due to the mental agonies inflicted upon him and multiple assaults on his identity. This election is to stop that tirade,” Mufti said.
She said that the reason that PDP has been targeted on multiple fronts was its “pro-people” approach and unbending courage.
“Those who were sent to the parliament in the last elections preferred to remain silent when people of Jammu and Kashmir were subjected to the worst atrocities, when our special status was removed. It was PDP alone that took to streets against each and every highhandedness of the government. This was the reason that PDP was targeted on multiple fronts.
“My own MLAs were lured away, they even tried to break my party, I was made homeless, my travel documents were taken away. But it was people’s support and immense love I have for this land that made me face every hardship with invincible courage. They tried to threaten me by getting me out of my house. They thought such tactics would break me,” she said, adding that she has inherited only people’s trust and support.
