Omar Abdullah a tourist in Kashmir, I am son of the soil, JKPC’s Sajjad Lone

Reckoned a key player in Kashmir politics, Sajjad Lone has come a long way since he eschewed separatist ideology after the assassination of his father Abdul Ghani Lone, a leading light of the pro-secession Hurriyat Conference, in 2002. As chairman of People’s Conference, Lone, 58, is the prime challenger to National Conference leader-former chief minister Omar Abdullah in the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat that goes to the polls on May 20. Edited excepts:

Q.What is your take on the electoral landscape in Jammu  & Kashmir?

It’s a very important election as this is the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Jammu & Kashmir has no assembly since 2018.

The people of Kashmir deserve to be represented by new voices because old and stale voices have not been able to reflect their pain and aspirations. The people of India also deserve to know what is happening in Kashmir.

Q.How do you look at your contest against National Conference’s Omar Abdullah who has been a three-time MP and former chief minister?

I am a local and son of the soil. Omar is a tourist. All 24 candidates he pitted against me are locals as they have their addresses in Baramulla. Only he is from Srinagar.

Q.Your election billboards promise dignity and development. How will you deliver on that if elected as an MP?

I will work on bringing big-ticket schemes and projects which can change the economic landscape of Kashmir. Development is common to every other place. What is unique to Kashmir is dignity. What the Centre gives us is not as important as how it gives it to us.

Do you throw it at us or hand it over to us?  The dignity aspect is quite lost in Kashmir. Before August 5, 2019, J&K had a special relationship which was taken away. If you believe all the states should have the same rules, then let the J&K also be part of that, especially when it comes to rules pertaining to security issues and police verification. 

Our entire youth is being held up by a discriminatory system in which a son has to be punished for a sin committed by his father. An innocent youth is being denied police verification because his brother or even distant cousin was involved with militancy. You need police verification for everything –  be it a passport, a government job or even a government tender.

Unfortunately, in Kashmir, police are investigating not only individuals but the entire family. That’s not the rule in Punjab, Gujarat or Delhi, but only in Kashmir. Why should Kashmiris be treated unfairly? Given a chance, I will bring this issue to the Parliament.

Q.Is the Article 370 is a poll issue in Kashmir?

It is there in the collective memory of  Kashmiris. But they also know that getting the special status is not possible through these elections.  J&K has only five MPs in the Parliament. National Conference is the main party from J&K in the Opposition alliance. Let NC ask the INDIA bloc to commit itself to bringing Article 370 back and spell out the constitutional roadmap to do that.

Why is the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] not contesting any of the three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir? The BJP never get more than one per cent of Kashmir votes. So, had they contested, would it not have been a rejection of what they did in the Parliament on August 5, 2019? Nullification of Article 370 has not made them a big player in the Valley. So they have chosen to stay face rather than face an obvious electoral and moral rejection. 

Q.But NC says you are the BJP’s proxy?

I was a minister in the People’s Democratic Party-ruled government (in Jammu and Kashmir) in which the BJP was an ally. But Omar Abdullah has been a minister in the BJP government headed by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. At that time, his father and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah passed a resolution in the J&K Assembly for autonomy which was contemptuously rejected by the Vajpayee government. But, Omar continued to be in the cabinet for four to five years. He should be the last person to point a finger at me.

I entered politics when my father had 45 bullets in his body. I have come up the very hard way.  Why do I need to be a BJP proxy? I am from a Muslim-majority state while the BJP has a pro-Hindu agenda. Why would I align with them?

Q.Your political base has been confined to the Kupwara district. How important is this contest for you as the assembly polls in J&K are expected to be held later this year?

My party has grown organically beyond Handwara, which was my father’s traditional bastion. Our vote share has gone up in the last fifteen years. This is despite the convergence of NC and the establishment and the fact that I have no uncles or aunties in Delhi.