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Kashmiris Defeat Modi, Bring Change
5-21-2014
SRINAGAR – Muslims in the India controlled Jammu and Kashmir have managed to defeat Congress allied National Conference and Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), voting for new faces from opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bring long awaited change.
“I could not get votes as BJP has very less response in Kashmir”, Mushtaq Ahmad Malik who fought on BJP ticket in south Kashmir, told OnIslam.net, adding, each vote BJP got in Kashmir is equal to one thousand vote.
For Malik, Kashmiri people anger with the traditional parties resulted in voting massively for PDP who won all the three seats in the district.
While opposition PDP clinched all the three seats in Kashmir, BJP won two seats from Jammu region and one from Ladakh.
"In Kashmir, PDP top witnessed a change that is unprecedented in its dimensions and democratic competition," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in a press conference after recording victory.
PDP “has achieved a new cutting edge in the State and people have participated in the process not only in respectable numbers but in case of Kashmir valley they have had to brave heavy odds,” she added, terming the poll results as a change in the political scenario of the country.
She said that all the PDP MP’s will advocate the issues of Kashmir in Indian Parliament and will attract a debate on all issues related to the Jammu and Kashmir.
On alliance, she said “we are not going to get any ministerial birth or any sort of alliance in Delhi but to seek to change the mind-set of the political parties towards the people of Kashmir”.
As Mehbooba lauded her victory, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah accepted his defeat, attributing it to the hanging of Afzul Guru and 2010 unrest.
“The unrest of 2010 and hanging of Mohd Afzal Guru could be the reason behind our loss”, Omar told reporters while congratulation the PDP the main opposition party in Kashmir.
“We didn’t expect such complete one side result, there are important lessons to learn from the (results)” Omar said adding, we have to learn from the defeat and check out as why our senior members could not give us the numbers.
However, National Conference workers term the defeat as a challenge for their party in next elections.
“Whatever it may be termed as, the defeat is a big challenge for the National Conference in coming elections,” Abdul Wahid, a National Conference worker in Central Kashmir, told OnIslam.net.
Change
While different parties were engages in calculating results and causes of victory or defeat, separatist leaders said that PDP election would bring no change to the people of Kashmir.
“Changing of hands over the tools of oppression does not matter for us,” Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who called for boycotting elections, told OnIslam.net.
“Our struggle is not for power or government but for the complete freedom of the state of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
Another Separatist leader and chairman of Hurriyat conference (M) Moulvi Umar Farooq hope that the new government in Delhi will not see Kashmir through military prism, taking concrete measures to resolve Kashmir issue.
“Whatever poll plank new dispensation has in mind but that is not going to help them in Kashmir until concrete measures are not taken to resolve it,” Umar who was talking to media after paying tributes to his father Moulvi Mohammad Farooq.
Meanwhile, other Kashmiris were satisfied with their decision to boycott the election or vote for no one.
During this election, the Election commission of India had kept an optional button of NOTA (none of the above) which was picked by more than thirty thousand people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I prefer to vote for none as no candidate was of my choice, but I am not with the poll boycott,” Asif Hussian Zargar from Shopian area of south Kashmir told OnIslam.net.
For other voters, rejecting all candidates was a better decision than simply boycotting vote.
“I can’t comment on the poll process or the results as our aim and ideology is entirely different from the leaders of the Kashmir who have made the issue ‘a butchers shop’,” Shafiq-ul-Hassan Wani told OnIslam.net.
“People of Kashmir have always been victimized by the political interests of the leaders else the situation would have been quite different than that of we have in the valley but the ultimate sufferer is a common man who is at receiving end at the hands of all these leaders.”
He added that a Kashmiri common man needs basic amenities not starvation or bullets.
“We need food to eat, cloths to wear and food to eat besides peace and prosperity of the Kashmir nation and have nothing to do with the rest of the states or countries,” Wani added.
Thought the results of the Indian election were to some extent expected, the results in the state of Jammu and Kashmir were a big surprise.
“In elections winning or losing is guaranteed, but what happened on May 16 is not believable as two big political stalwarts Senior Congress leader and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and National Conference President were defeated by the candidates of BJP and PDP,” Rashid Arshid, a political science student in University of Kashmir, told OnIslam.net.
For some candidates, the election was a start of a new stage to look for the real needs of Kashmiris.
“I will go to the people and work for them in next five years and will win the hearts and minds of the people instead to keep vote politics in mind,” Gh Nabi Shah, an independent Candidate who contested from south Kashmir, told OnIslam.net.
“My aim is to serve the people and I will continue to work for them ‘Inshallah’ till next elections,” he added.
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