If India Wants to Become Vishvaguru It Must Resolve Kashmir Issue First

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Awami Itehad Party (AIP) leader Sheikh Abdur Rashid on Thursday, a day after walking free from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, renewed his pledge to “fight till my last breath” for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

“My fight is beyond what Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti perceive. It is in the interest of the entire Indian subcontinent to resolve the Kashmir issue amicably. If India has to become the Vishvaguru (world teacher) it must resolve Kashmir first,” he said.

On his arrival at the Srinagar airport, Mr. Rashid,56, who is popularly known as Engineer Rashid, prostrated and kissed the soil of Kashmir and then told the waiting reporters, “I am here not to become a chief minister. My fight is bigger than that. I want a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. Every mother who has gone through the loss of a child will tell you the same thing. The conflict has claimed four to five lakh people since 1947. I want the resolution of the Kashmir issue so that no mother loses her child, and nobody is imprisoned.”

Later the AIP leader drove to Delina, a township in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency, where he received a warm welcome of his supporters. While speaking at a rally, he thanked the people of Baramulla for electing him to Parliament in the recently held elections and assured them “I won't betray your trust or treat my fellow Kashmiris the way the likes of Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have treated them”.

He said that no one needs peace more than the people of Kashmir, but they want it on their conditions and not on terms set by the Centre. “We want to tell (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi that no one needs peace more than we do. But that peace will come at our conditions, not yours. We do not want the peace of a graveyard but peace with dignity,” he said.

Later while addressing a press conference, he said, “Modi says that the circumstances vis-à-vis Kashmir have changed but I want to request him that if he has a better solution for Kashmir in mind tell us and we will discuss it. Yet it is the people of J&K who will decide what they want.” He added that if the issue of Kashmir is referred to its people, “may be those living on the other side (of the Line of Control) too will opt for India and if they do it then your Tricolour will also fly over Gilgit, Baltistan and everywhere (in PoJK).”

He said that the talk of seeking the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A by some regional political parties of J&K was flawed. “It is not how these will come back. You have to launch a widespread public awareness…you may have to face batons at Lal Chowk and even go through worse,” he said.

Taking a dig at former chief ministers Mr. Abdullah and Ms. Mufti, he said, “You can’t do that. Your shoulders can’t bear the weight of it.” However, he suggested to them and others wanting the restoration of J&K’s special status and other rights to its people “snatched” by New Delhi on August 5, 2019, “We will together go to Delhi where we will sit outside Modi’s house and tell the world that we have been wronged…injustice has been done to us.”

He added, “I will make all my candidates (contesting the J&K Assembly elections) withdraw their nominations, and we all will support and follow behind you if you show me a better achievable roadmap for bringing Article 370 back.”

He alleged that the people of J&K are being suppressed due to the “dirty politics” of the BJP and that he is not being allowed to attend the Parliament after his election four months ago only to prevent him from speaking out the truth. “By doing it they are only taking out the funeral of democracy. Modi is afraid of me and that is why I am saying ‘daro math, daraav math (don’t be scared, don’t frighten others)’.

He appealed to the voters to “make my voice stronger” by electing the AIP party nominees in the Assembly polls being held in J&K after a gap of ten years from September 18.

Asked if he would cobble up an alliance with the BJP to form a coalition government if the situation demanded, he said, “How can I do that? They treated me worse than an animal in these five and a half years. However, if Modi is willing to resolve the Kashmir issue and involves all the stakeholders in the effort then we too would be there to do our bit.”

Mr. Rashid had been lodged in Tihar jail since August 2019 when the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested him in an alleged money laundering and terror funding case. He defeated his nearest rival and National Conference (NC) vice president Mr. Abdullah with a margin of over two lakh votes in home constituency Baramulla in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

He was granted interim bail by Delhi’s special NIA court on Tuesday. It will remain effective until October 2 to allow him to campaign for the AIP candidates in the J&K Assembly elections. However, Mr. Rashid’s release ahead of the polls has raised many eyebrows back home. His political bête noires see in his release a conspiracy hatched by the Centre to divide the anti-BJP vote in the Kashmir Valley.