AASHA KHOSAÎFebruary 25: Kashmiri leaders are busy writing fresh epitaphs on the graves of separatists with each contestant holding the other responsible for the ``death of 60,000 Kashmiris and mayhem of eight years''.``My heart bleeds at the sight of martyrs' graveyard in each village,'' said Maqbool Dar, minister of state for Home and Janata Dal candidate from the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, at a recent meeting. ``They have gone inside with the pain of rebellion against the authoritarian system.'' His target was the rival National Conference. The owning up of separatists cuts across party lines.
The shadow of militancy looms large over the election in Kashmir. Nobody dares to condemn the militants directly and the vote-seekers are sticking to the rules of public life laid out by the separatists.
Almost all election meetings start with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Women leaders and workers are deliberately kept out of the public rallies with the sole exception of Mehbooba Mufti of theCogress, who sticks to a strict Islamic dress code.
Mehbooba, a former executive with an airline, explains her compulsions: ``The people feel good about you in case you show respect their religious sentiments.'' A woman worker of the National Conference said she was angry and yet helpless as she was simply not welcome to accompany the party's election bandwagon. ``They say people do not like it.''
A recent BJP election rally in the heart of the Srinagar city appeared more `green' than `saffron' as religious slogans rent the snow-laden area. Abdul Rashid Kabuli, the fire-brand speaker and party candidate, challenged Farooq Abdullah to prove his religious credentials. ``He does not do namaz nor observe rozas", he said.
Other leaders do the same subtly. ``I am not the leader of Kashmiri Muslims alone,'' said Maqbool Dar, ``you know the entire 12 crore Muslims have their eyes on me.'' The NC's much-chanted slogan ``Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, ittehad (Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity) Zindabad''is simply out of vogue asleaders vie with each other to prove ``they are more devout Muslims than their rivals.''Amidst this Islamic concern, the issue of displaced Kashmiri Hindus been completely relegated to the back burner. The issue would always figure in the last elections to the State Assembly where all parties tried to woo the migrants' votes.
Capt. S.K. Tickoo of Kukka Parrey's Awami Leauge says he felt overwhelmed when at a public rally Parrey asked him to start a meeting with Hindu prayers. ``I recited Aasto ma sadgamaya (lead me from darkness to light) and translated it for the cent per-cent Muslim audience who spontaneously applauded.'' No other leader has so far shown this gesture as there are hardly any non-Muslims to share the stage with contestants in Kashmir.
The ``60,000 deaths'' has become the catchword for vote-seekers, be it from the ruling parties like the National Conference or the United Front or for that matter the separatist leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference who are vehemently campaigningfor the boycott of the polls. According to official statistics, nearly 15,000 people including militants have died in the bloodshed during eight years. Nobody wants to set the record straight in the Valley, where disinformation and rumours have always thrived.
The APHC leaders call the Indian forces, politicians and system the villain of the game of violence. Fully aware that it is not the Hurriyat but the Congress which poses the party a challenge in elections, NC leaders call Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, former home minister in V.P. Singh's cabinet ``the killer of 60,000 Kashmiris.''
The Congress has matching venom. The party leaders have a list of ``atrocities by special task force of the police and other security forces during the tenure of Farooq Abdullah''. The fence-sitter Janata Dal conveniently blames all others for perpetuating violence in Kashmir.
At Tral, a villager who had escaped a grenade attack by militants at a public rally summed up his dilemma, ``Everyone is coming to us and provokingagainst the other but practically their (politicians') visit to our place means more humiliation and inconvenience to us. Why don't they leave us alone, we can decide ourself.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
