Opposing the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, the Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone Thursday said that New Delhi should punish those who chased out pro-Kashmir leadership from the mainstream into the separatist arena by rigging the 1987 polls.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by PC to welcome Choudhary Zaffar Khatana into the party, Sajad said 1987 electoral fraud pushed many groups into the waiting arms of separatism.
“Jamaat and other groupsused to fight elections. Everybody knows how they were pushed to the wall.Their leaders and activists were arrested and implicated in fake cases toensure win of National Conference and Congress candidates by using allfraudulent means,” he said.
The Centre had last weekbanned Jamaat-e-Islami, claiming the organisation was in close touch withmilitants. This is the third time since 1975 that JeI has been banned in thestate.
Sajad said these groupswere continuously victimised during the past three decades and banning them isnot solution to any problem.
“They are the victims of1987. And 30 years down the line you are again punishing them. Is it justice?Those who murdered democracy in Kashmir have gone unpunished. Wake up NewDelhi. It is time to inflict punishment on those who pushed Kashmir into anever-ending vicious cycle of violence,” Sajad said. Sajad, who was flanked bysenior party leaders Abdul GaniVakil and Imran Reza Ansari, said the ban onJamaat is against the democratic principles. “We are ideologically opposed to them but banning Jamaat is against thebasic principles of democracy,” he said, adding that arrests and crackdownoperations are tested and failed models.
Sajad said ideas cannot be caged but can be countered only by ideas. To a question about timing of Assembly elections, Sajad said his party is ready to contest polls but there should be some minimum level of participation. “We are ready for polls. But we should not make a mockery of democracy. We should be confident of some minimum level of participation. In some seats, an MLA is elected when he or she gets 25000-30000 votes. But then we have scores of MLAs who get votes in the range of 2000 to 6000. The culture of beneficiaries of boycott should not be encouraged,” Sajad said. Sajad, however, said there is a difference between Parliament and Assembly elections. “In the Parliament, we send six members in a House of 550 members. Our role is not decisive in that House.
In Assembly, we send 87 out of 87. Our role is decisive. The Government which is elected will for six years be critical for a range of issues pertaining to health care education, law making, etc.,” he said. Sajad also flayed the government for detaining JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik under Public Safety Act.
“Yasin Malik is ailing and has had fragile health all along. He was the first to embrace political process at a great risk.
Today when you arrest him, what message you are sending?” he asked. Welcoming Choudhary Zafar Khatana into the party fold, Imran Reza Ansari said his joining will strengthen the party. He also announced that Zafar will be PC’s candidate for Anantnag parliamentary seat.