Before he wraps up his speech, Bhat gives a final prompt. “Yeh jo inqilab hai (This revolution that you see)…”, he says. His supporters shout back: “… zulm ka jawab hai (is a response to the oppression)”.
The election rally, with less than a hundred people, can be mistaken for a separatist rally of yesteryears. More recently, slogans on almost the same lines were heard at the public meetings of jailed separatist leader Engineer Rashid during the Lok Sabha polls. Only, Bhat is a candidate of the BJP.
The 35-year-old, who joined politics and the BJP only seven months ago, realises what he is saying may not pass muster with his party, blamed for most of the “atrocities” in Kashmir that he flays. However, Bhat tells: “I talk with sincerity, and sometimes my statements go beyond the party line… But I tell myself, even if they do, let them (the government) put me in jail.”
Others see the stand as purely pragmatic if Bhat wants a shot at winning, given Rajpora seat’s record of recent violence and given his formidable rivals in the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) Syed Bashir Ahmad and the National Conference’s (NC’s) Ghulam Mohiudin Mir.
Mir is a one-time MLA from the seat (1996), while Bashir Ahmad has won it twice (2002 and 2008). Since 1996, the PDP has been winning, with Haseeb Drabu, who went on to be Finance Minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government, winning from Rajpora in 2014.
However, Bhat’s pitch on “unjust arrests” and “administrative terrorism” does not go down easy, nor does his bid to lay the blame on “previous” governments. His rallies and meetings are drawing thin crowds.
At the Aglar Kandi rally, an old man tells the BJP leader: “Our three sons are in jail in Agra… If you get them back here, to the Srinagar Central Jail, before polling day, we will vote for you.”
Bhat’s cavalcade of a dozen vehicles makes its next stop at Kadipora village, a kilometre away. Addressing a group of youth, Bhat again skips issues such as roads, electricity, schools, to focus on arrests, FIRs, and Acts such as the PSA and UAPA under which many are jailed in Kashmir.
The BJP candidate also makes a mention of New Delhi’s “wrong” policies, but quickly blames local parties for “misleading them”. An FIR against one destroys one’s life, Bhat says. But, he adds, “… my fight is, if someone’s father was a Rukn-i-Jamaat (member of the Jamaat), why should the child pay for it?”
He talks about the cases he himself is facing, over a dozen FIRs. Bhat claims they were lodged by political parties over his social media posts on their actions, naming NC candidate Mir in particular. However, police records show sections related to cheating too against him.
“I have to work for it (the repeal of the PSA). If I don’t, I am doing injustice, ” he tells The Indian Express.
Asked about Bhat’s speeches, BJP media in-charge Sajid Yousuf says that if he is talking about the repeal of the PSA, there is nothing wrong in it. “If we come to power, we will repeal these laws. We have done it in Manipur, we will do it in Kashmir,” Yousuf tells The Indian Express.
As for Bhat’s slogans of revenge, Yousuf claims they are directed against the NC and PDP governments. “He has been himself harassed, put in jail. He is also from a place that has seen it all. And if he talks about revenge for the Shopian women, it is against the mishandling of the case by the NC government.”
Yousuf credits Bhat with creating “acceptability for the BJP” in Pulwama, an area where people would be scared to take even the name of the party.
Over in his campaign, Bhat has also been criticising security forces. At Drabgam, a village known as a militant hub till a few years ago, he says: “They raid a house like terrorists… If they have to arrest someone, they can call the village head and tell him to get the man for questioning. But how do they come? First, they beat up four-five neighbours, then scale the wall in the dead of night. Isn’t that terrorism?”
A policeman who is part of Bhat’s security detail remarks wryly, “We have been trained in tolerance. We listen to what they say against us and tolerate it.”
A villager is as unimpressed. “Bhat is talking about arrests, about the PSA. Who is doing all this? The (Lieutenant) Governor is their (the BJP’s) man… They have disempowered us, and now they want our vote to dislodge us from here.” Source
