Sajad Gani Lone faces tough fight on home turf

Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir: Sajad Gani Lone is dubbed a “turncoat” and someone “who demanded azadi for 25 years but has now been purchased by the BJP” by no less a person than chief minister Omar Abdullah himself.

No doubt his political consanguinity with the saffron party, though still somewhat fuzzy, has caused a dent in his popularity. Handwara, a constituency in frontier Kupwara district with some neighbourhood areas, continues to be the strongest bastion of the Lones.

Both Sajad and his elder brother Bilal Gani Lone claim they are carrying the legacy of their slain father Abdul Gani Lone forward. But Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Conference (JKPC) formed in 1978 by him and dedicated to the restoration of “internal autonomy” in the state split in factions after Lone Senior was shot dead by suspected militants in May 2002.

While the one headed by Bilal is a constituent of the separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance which has called for a boycott of elections on the premise that these cannot substitute promised plebiscite, the other run by Sajad not only chose to join the fray, but many even in his own clique were taken aback when he travelled all the way from here to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few weeks ago.

The 44-year-old “dissenter” is paying a price for what is being openly branded by his critics and some former followers as “betrayal”.

“Our conscience is still alive. Do you think we will go with this gaddaar (traitor) who brazenly calls Modi, the killer of Muslims in Gujarat, as his elder brother?” asks a fuming Handwara resident, Abdur Rashid Wagay, as hundreds of supporters of the ruling National Conference (NC) chanting “Modi ka jo yaar hai; gaddaar hai, gaddaar hai” arrive in the town from neighbouring Zachaldar belt in an armada of cars decorated with red and white parts flags and portraits of Kashmir’s legendary leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and his son Farooq Abdullah to listen to its working president and CM Omar Abdullah. Wagay, who is in late twenties, claims he is not an NC supporter and did not vote in any of the elections held since the mid-1990s. “But this time I’m not going to listen to the boycott diktats. Perhaps I don’t have to tell you why and who I’m going to vote against,” he said.

Mr Abdullah arrives to a rousing reception at a place, which was until few years ago considered a hotbed of insurgency.

While speaking at an amenable NC rally, he asked people to give a verdict for their honour by voting for his party voting and against those “who used the azadi platform and exploited thousands of young boys right to their youthful graves to reach a stage where they could impetuously jump in to the lap of the RSS”.

His jab at Sajad evoked a ringing laughter and a thundering applause from the audience. A heated indignation too as was noticeable from many faces.

Sajad is seeking election to the state Assembly from Handwara and the locals who claimed to be disinterested said he was winning hands down but his proximity with the BJP has made it a tough contest for him.

Seemingly, he is not oblivious to the impairment his meeting with the Prime Minister and then admiring him in public have caused to his image here and elsewhere in Kashmir.

As he is carried on his shoulders by a brawny supporter to a platform lorry which serves as podium for a JKPC rally at Langate, only a couple of kilometres from Handwara, the first things Sajad did was to seek to justify his meeting with Mr Modi. “I was invited to meet him. I seized the opportunity for the sake of my people. I asked for a central university and a big hospital for my district (Kupwara) apart from construction of a four-lane road from Srinagar right up to Handwara so that tourists can also come to this place and when they do our youth will get employment.”

He added, “I didn’t commit any sin (by meeting Mr Modi). I’m also being asked that since my wife is a Pakistani (national) she must be annoyed with me over my meeting Modi. But I say if her Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif can meet Modi why can’t I? Why should she have any objection?” Sajad echoes Mr Modi by alleging two families (Abdullahs and Muftis) have looted J&K for 50 years and then plays regional card by asking the audience to “think of your future and that of your children... don’t allow the money which should be spent here to go to Srinagar or Anantnag.” [Abdullahs are from Srinagar and Muftis from Anantnag]. But then he thinks big and craves for bigger. “I’m not running after the chief minister’s chair. It is chasing me.”

Next day, he returns here to take on Mr Abdullah.

He tells an impressive rally at the closing of the election campaign, “Most members of the Abdullah family have married in non-Muslim families and by that logic they are neither Muslims and nor do they have any faith.” He seeks to reciprocate disdain with disdain by saying, “Those who are criticising BJP today were in their lap till yesterday.”

Handwara, with 17 other segments, is going to polls in the second phase of elections Tuesday.