‘Against jail, oppression, PSA’, ‘for inquilab’: Spot the BJP candidate at this Kashmir rally :- BJP candidate Arshad Ahmad Bhat is from the violent Rajpora area near Badgam. He says he “talks with sincerity” and that the party can put him in jail. But will people believe what he says?
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“Qabristan ka badla” (The revenge for the graveyard) is what Arshad Ahmad Bhat shouts at an election gathering in Aglar Kandi, a village in Rajpora constituency that is far away and borders Budgam district. The locals all say, “Vote se,” which means “Through the vote.”
“FIR ka badla…” Bhat continues, and the answer is the same. “Revenge for jail,” “Revenge for oppression,” and “Revenge for force” are some of the proverbs that people use.
He goes on to talk about “revenge” for the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian and the shooting death of Class 12 student Tufail Ahmad Mattoo by police. Both of these events led to widespread unrest in Kashmir in 2009 and 2010.
Bhat gives one last hint before ending his speech. His words, “This revolution that you see,” are clear. He gets angry back and says, “…zulm ka jawab hai” (is a reaction to the oppression).
The election rally, which has less than a hundred people, looks a lot like a separatist gathering from the past. Recently, during the Lok Sabha elections, people heard almost the same rhetoric at the public events of Engineer Rashid, a jailed rebel leader. Only Bhat is running for office as a BJP candidate.
He is 35 years old and has only been in politics and the BJP for seven months. He knows that what he is saying might not go over well with his party, which is blamed for most of the “atrocities” in Kashmir that he talks about.
But Bhat says, “I speak honestly, and sometimes what I say goes against what the party says…” But I tell myself, “Let the government put me in jail even if they do.”
Others think Bhat is only being practical if he wants to win, since the Rajpora seat has a history of violence and he has strong opponents in Syed Bashir Ahmad of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ghulam Mohiudin Mir of the National Conference (NC).
Bashir Ahmad has won the seat twice, in 2002 and 2008, while Mir has only been an MLA from the seat once, in 1996. Since 1996, the PDP has won. In 2014, Haseeb Drabu won from Rajpora and went on to become Finance Minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
But Bhat’s claims of “unjust arrests” and “administrative terrorism” don’t go over well, and neither does his attempt to blame “previous” governments. His rallies and talks don’t have many people in them.
A man in his eighties tells the BJP leader, “Our three sons are in jail in Agra.” We will vote for you if you get them back to the Srinagar Central Jail before the election.
Bhat’s group of twelve cars will stop next at Kadipora town, which is one kilometer away. When Bhat talks to a group of young people, he again avoids talking about things like roads, power, and schools in order to focus on arrests.
The BJP candidate also talks about the “wrong” policies of New Delhi, but he or she quickly says that local parties are to blame for “leading them astray.” Bhat says that a FIR against someone ends their life.
“But my fight is, why should the child pay for it if their father was a Rukn-i-Jamaat (Jamaat member)?” he says.
Over a dozen FIRs are being brought against him, and he talks about them. Bhat says they were sent by political parties because of what he wrote on social media about their acts, mentioning NC candidate Mir here.
A BJP official, Sajid Yousuf, was asked about Bhat’s statements. He said that if Bhat was talking about getting rid of the PSA, there was nothing wrong with it.
“These laws will be thrown out if we win.” Yousuf tells The Indian Express, “We did it in Manipur, and we will do it in Kashmir.”
When it comes to Bhat’s angry chants, Yousuf says they are meant to hurt the NC and PDP governments. “He has been flogged and jailed for it.” He also comes from a place that has seen a lot.
“And if he talks about getting back at the Shopian women, it’s because the NC government messed up the case,”