Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 29: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti today asked the voters to express their unhappiness over the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution through their votes in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.
Amid torrential rains that lashed the Valley today hundreds of people gathered at Larkipora, Dooru Shahabad, Verinag, Kapran and several other places in the district to welcome Mufti during her roadshow in the area.
Addressing a road show at multiple places, Mufti asked people to vote for safeguarding the interests of the people of J&K.
“This is not an Assembly election. This is not about whether the PDP, the National Conference or the Congress will win. This election is about sending a message that the decisions taken in 2019 and what followed are not acceptable to the people,” she said.
Mufti said Jammu and Kashmir has been through very tough times in the past and the present situation is also a difficult one.
“The people of J&K have witnessed tough times in the past. Those did not last and neither will this (situation), but only if we fight it together through peaceful and democratic ways,” she said.
The PDP president said people might have been upset with her party for some time, but they do realise that the party has saved them from the task force, counter-insurgent Ikhwan group and POTA.
“It was during the tenure of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that a new era of development was started, a dialogue process was started between India and Pakistan and there seemed to be some movement on key issues,” she added.
Mufti said the ongoing elections is a crucial opportunity for people of J&K to amplify the voice of the region in Parliament. She emphasized the necessity of expressing dissent against the disempowering events that have unfolded since August 5, 2019.
The PDP president highlighted her efforts to rally different parties for a collective cause but expressed disappointment at the National Conference’s withdrawal from the proposed united front.
Mufti said that she is amazed over the NC’s public ridicule of the PDP and its assertion that the party had become irrelevant in the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir.
“As a result, I left my home, travelled across Rajouri, Poonch, and the Kashmir Valley to get an idea about the veracity of the claims made by NC. I wanted to see for myself how a party that ended the Task force, Ikhwaan, repealed POTA, and quashed thousands of FIRs of youth in order to safeguard their future, could vanish from the scene. But what I am seeing are pure rays of hope amidst the pervasive uncertainty. The massive support I am receiving from my people all across is truly overwhelming,” she added.
Mufti said that the era of gun culture, pillage, and fear that used to haunt every single street of Kashmir in the past ceased to exist when PDP formed the government in 2003. She urged people not to lose hope, emphasizing that the current elections transcended mundane issues like infrastructure development.
The PDP President said that the ongoing measures are meant to convey the unequivocal message to the parliament that the actions taken on August 5, 2019, were unjust and must be rectified. “This election surpasses partisan politics and is about sending a strong voice to parliament so that those sitting comfy at the echelons of power hear our just voices,” she added.
“We want to tell them that our resources are ours, our identity is ours, our jobs are ours. The plunder of our hydroelectricity is being carried out in the open while the disenfranchised people of Jammu and Kashmir are reeling under darkness, their jobs are being given to the outsiders, their lands are being taken away from them. They have been virtually choked to death,” she added.
Mufti highlighted the widespread discontent, noting that even residents of Jammu and Ladakh were joining the chorus of dissent against the events of August 5, 2019. “Therefore, understand that the present polls are not the assembly elections aimed at providing civic amenities to the people. These elections are about our rights and about our fight to get them back,” she added.
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