Mufti has nowadays made Article 370 as article of faith, says Malik
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik Thursday vowed that people of the state would safeguard state subject law at any cost and warned that mass agitation would be launched if any attempt to issue citizenship rights to non-Kashmiris is made.
Addressing a press conference here, he said, “Our only concern is state subject law. It was implemented in 1927 when neither India was free nor Pakistan. This law is in every state where there are forests. If anybody tries to fiddle with this law we will spill blood on streets. We aren’t afraid of RSS and BJP. Infact their policy is straight forward.”
Rejecting PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s frequently stated statements that he will ensure dialogue process with Pakistan and separatists is re-started he said, “Neither we have any interest when someone says we will start dialogue process with separatists. We aren’t interested in such futile exercise when India is not ready to budge from its stand. Such processes are wastage of time.”
“I would have respected Mufti if he would have sought votes in Kashmir by telling people that he is Indian by conviction like he tells to journalists in India. But here he seeks votes in the name of resolution of Kashmir issue,” Malik added.
On recently held assembly elections, the JKLF chairman said, “New Delhi has since 1947 been projecting elections as its victory in Kashmir. We have always been against these fraudulent and rigid elections. When pro India parties contest elections, they try to project themselves as representatives of Azadi camp. For 50 years NC used to claim to be the representatives of people. But it was JKLF which emerged in 1988 and in 1990, NC was drowned in peoples revolution. Kashmir issue once again became an international issue and foreign diplomats used to come here frequently.”
“In 1996 Farooq Abdullah was brought back and elections were held. Task Force let loose a reign of terror in subsequent years. But later New Delhi realized that boycott graph is going up and NC has lost its relevance, they created PDP. When it was created, they were given free hand to talk about soft separatism, disband Task Force. Mufti who had never won an election in Kashmir in his life, became chief minister in 2002. Then Mufti sahib claimed that he disbanded Task Force. But in reality he made every police station Task Force camps and I ask you don’t all the police stations take part in anti-militancy operations. The top Hizb-ul-Mujahideen leadership was killed in custody during Mufti’s tenure,” Malik alleged.
The JKLF chairman claimed that in the recent elections scientific policy was made to project BJP’s mission 44 plus to scare Kashmiris so that they will vote in large numbers. “Media, columnists and even imams were used in this job. Psychological coercion was done and BJP was projected as a villain in Kashmir and consent was manufactured through media. People were scared psychologically and not physically and BJP in its national interests projected itself as villain,” he claimed.
“These elections were manufactured and people were psychologically coerced. But I agree that Indian state and its wisdom defeated us intellectually. What is the way out? In the process of freedom movement imperialist state declares its victory so many times. But freedom fighters get chance again and again. I would like to convey a message to Indian state that you defeated us in this election and through your strategy. But I will again get a chance. But when I will defeat you, you won’t get a second chance. History is witness in freedom movements, state never gets second chance,” Malik added.
Launching a scathing attack on Mufti Sayeed he said, “Mufti is the first politician who started his career from Indian politics directly. Mufti has nowadays made Article 370 as article of faith. But I want to ask him 95 percent of amendments made to this article were made during Sadiq sahib’s government of which Mufti was a minister.”
“It is a clear that New Delhi wants to divert the discourse from Azadi to Article 370 so that Kashmir issue is diluted and projected as center-state relation issue. Kashmiris have no interest with Article 370. It is NC, PDP, Congress, BJP and Communists who have interest in it. From last more than one year discourse have been created that one who will safeguard Article 370 is the friend of Kashmiris. It is same people who eroded Article 370 in past today are claiming to safeguard it. AFSPA who implemented it in Kashmir? Wasn’t it Mufti Sayeed when he was Home Minister of India? Today whom he asks to revoke it? Isn’t it the state assembly which can revoke it?” he asked.
“Election is giving a lease of life to Indian state. Kashmiris were emotionally and psychologically blackmailed and they voted. For us government formation is a non-issue. For us NC, PDP, Congress and independent MLAs are all surrogates of India. They are all surrogates of Indian state,” Malik said and asserted they will re-emerge again.
