Vikrant Shekhawat : Sep 03, 2024, 10:16 AM
J&K Election 2024: The recent changes in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections reflect an important political scenario. Separatist leaders who adhered to the policy of boycotting elections for nearly 40 years are now joining mainstream politics. First Jamaat-e-Islami participated in the electoral process and now Hurriyat chief Syed Salim Geelani has joined the PDP. Geelani said that the PDP's platform talks about dialogue and reconciliation, and that is why he adopted this change. Geelani regretted his past and said that some incidents should not have happened and it is natural for the methods of politics to change with time.The BJP has described this change as the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hard work, and considered it a sign of changes after the repeal of Article 370. BJP spokesperson Sajid Yusuf stressed that now there are long lines of election agents, which did not happen earlier. At the same time, Omar Abdullah said that this change confirms his predictions. PDP's Wahid Para also praised this new political scenario and said that if he had known about it earlier, he would not have fielded a candidate against Jamaat-e-Islami. This change shows that a new thinking is emerging towards joining Indian democracy.'I will do better work through this platform'Speaking to India TV on this changing thinking of the separatists, Hurriyat leader Syed Salim Gilani said that joining PDP is the connectivity of politics. He said, 'PDP talks about reconciliation. It talks about youth, advocates dialogue. That's why I felt that I will do better work here.' On boycotting the elections, Salim Gilani said that the call for boycotting the elections was the policy of Hurriyat, but with time the methods of politics also change. He said that I felt that I will do better work through this platform.‘No one can run away from reality’When Geelani was asked if more people from Hurriyat can join the election process, he said, ‘Wait for the time. No one can run away from reality.’ When asked if he regrets the incidents that happened in Kashmir after being in Hurriyat for 35 years, Salim Geelani said that the Kunan-Poshpora incident should not have happened. He said, ‘Sopore caught fire, people were killed. The Gavkadal incident should not have happened. Whoever dies, be it a civilian, a terrorist or a uniformed soldier, he is someone's mother's son.’BJP gave credit to PM Modi's hard workThe involvement of Hurriyat and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders in the election process is being considered a big change in Jammu and Kashmir. BJP believes that all this has been possible due to the hard work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this big change after the removal of Article 370 clearly shows how much the situation has changed. BJP spokesperson Sajid Yusuf said, 'Till 2019, it was not possible that Rahul Gandhi would come to Anantnag and campaign for his party's candidate or that the National Conference leaders could openly come out on the streets and campaign.''There was a time when there were no election agents'Sajid said, 'There was a time when there were no election agents. Today there is a long line of agents. It is the biggest development that people who gave the slogan of haram and boycott are joining the stream of work today.' At the same time, Omar Abdullah said, 'Elections have come, they are ready to fight. Till now whenever we have contested elections, they have raised slogans of election boycott. Now they themselves are ready to contest elections. Somewhere their ideology has changed and what we said has proved to be right. We have been saying since the 90s that the situation here will worsen but we were targeted.''... then we would not have fielded candidates against Jamaat'PDP youth president Wahid Para said, 'If we had known that Jamaat-e-Islami would contest the elections, PDP would have given them our constituency as well. We would have given them tickets as well. We would not have fielded candidates against them. They have suffered a lot. We would have made space for them as well, but they did not tell us.' After following the path of separatism and politics of boycotting elections for 4 decades, Hurriyat leaders and Jamaat members are showing faith in Indian democracy. This shows that the ground situation has changed a lot after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.