Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik Monday said that people of Jammu and Kashmir will boycott the upcoming urban local bodies and panchayat polls as these polls are aimed at diluting the Kashmir issue.
In a joint statement issued after deliberations at Geelani’sHyderpora residence, the leadership said that while the “Damocles sword is kept hanging over us on the issue of Article 35A, the Government of India now wants to thrust panchayat and municipal elections on us through additional deployment of lakhs of forces under the pretext of lapse of developmental funds”.
“It can’t get more ironic. Surely GoI is not so gullible as to think that despite all the physical and psychological pain and trauma that they inflict on people of Kashmir, any Kashmiri will buy their lapse of funds for development argument and willingly participate in this act of manipulation and deceit,” the Leadership said.
“These enforced elections are nothing but another assault on people to harass them and cause them further inconvenience and agony,” the statement said.
The Leadership also quoted a former panchayat chairman who told a newspaper that “the (GOI) only want to hoodwink the world by telling it Kashmiris have faith in democratic institutions…It hardly matters for them if people get killed in the process.”
They said that people of Kashmir know too well that when it’s comes to J&K all power rests with New Delhi and all decisions flow from there.
“So much so that in 70 years since 1947 J&K is a colony ruled by India. Each election that has been held here from panchayat to parliament has only been a means to further strengthen that power centre and in turn New Delhis hold on J&K, and steadily but surely weaken the sovereignty of the people of J&K,” the leadership said.
“They said any participation in elections is propagated as people’s verdict in favour of India and hence they are used as a means to dilute J&K disputed status and undo the holding of a referendum as promised by Delhi at the UN,” the statement reads.
“These elections only bring prosperity to an opportunist class of people whom India has patronized in Kashmir like snakes being fed milk, while selling these elections to the people of India and the world as an endorsement by the people of J&K to Delhi’s rule,” they said.
“New Delhi has never believed in empowering the people of J&K or the institutions here, for it knows that it’s connect with the state is neither legitimate nor moral but an outcome of manipulation’s and broken promises.”
They said that leadership wants to convey to GoI a loud and clear message by the people of Kashmir that “they boycott any kind of participation in elections and instead only demand Right to self determination”.
“There is a peoples’ slogan now: No to all election, only right to self determination.”
The leadership commended people on their steadfastness and unity in strongly opposing the tinkering with hereditary state subject law being challenged in the Supreme Court by anti Kashmir agencies and organisations.
“People of J&K have always stood up and resisted every move of subjugation thrust upon them,” they said.
“It speaks volumes about the courage and character of the Kashmir nation that despite all out assaults by the Delhi with the assistance of political parties through repression propaganda and subversion this small nation is firmly and consistently engaged in the pursuit of its goal of the fundamental right to decide its destiny, the right to self-determination.”
They said that the heartrending sacrifices and resistance being offered by a people young and old men women and children especially during the last 30 years is “our asset and guiding light that we can never betray.”
The Leadership said that Kashmiris continuously bear the brunt of “daily crackdowns by eight lakh forces stationed in every nook and corner of the state especially the valley, in the form of killings incarceration harassment and repression”.
“Each day a new assault is launched against us, to pin us down and tire us out,” he said.
