Raqif Makhdoomi
The political environment in Kashmir is boiling. The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir is busy running a marathon along with his MLAs, and his party leaders are busy attacking Iltija Mufti over her protests against the removal of Urdu. A series of articles are being written highlighting what happened during the PDP-BJP alliance — all this being done to turn attention away from the protests by Iltija Mufti. The CM, who was busy with the marathon all during this time, came back and said, “PDP helped BJP gain a Rajya Sabha seat. Now they are using Urdu to divert attention.” This is all the CM has to defend himself from the allegations of removing Urdu as a mandatory language for revenue officials.
Accusing PDP of voting for BJP took place after an RTI was tweeted by a journalist. The journalist filed an RTI to know how many more votes the BJP candidate got to win the seat. The RTI reveals that eight votes helped BJP gain the seat. There is no mention of the party that voted for BJP, but the ruling National Conference is pointing guns at the PDP. Soon after the elections, one of the MLAs accepted that he mistakenly voted for Shammi Oberoi instead of Imran Nabi Dar. So one vote that helped BJP is clearly among them. The other seven votes still have no address. The independent MLAs in the assembly are not required to show who they voted for, and there must have been someone among them who voted for BJP. But instead of being factual, the NC is being political — because they know that if they start being factual, they will have to tell people that PDP has only four MLAs and the burden of eight cannot be put on PDP alone. Their own ally, Congress, appointed just one agent, which means that agent’s vote was also not counted. So two votes that helped BJP win are of their own camp. I am not saying all this by myself; I got all this from the tweet of the same journalist who filed the RTI.
Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that all four votes of PDP went to BJP. But where did the other two come from? Who are these two? Do they know that someone from within betrayed them? And now, to cover it up, are they putting the blame on PDP?
Here is something we must know. When NC approached PDP for support for their Rajya Sabha candidate, Mehbooba Mufti held a press conference and made it clear that they would vote for the third preference, not the fourth. Mehbooba Mufti in the same press conference made it clear that choosing the third preference was because they did not want to be blamed for losing the fourth seat. National Conference already lacked the votes to win the fourth seat. Another thing to be made clear is that BJP had only three candidates. NC already had a seat where they did not need to prove majority. The third seat of Shammi needed no majority to win. They could have saved those votes for the fourth seat, but instead they voted for their third candidate. NC’s own miscalculation helped BJP win a seat, and now they are putting it on PDP.
I am sure that before reading this article, you must have formed an opinion in your mind that PDP helped BJP win the seat. But now you must have started to think that NC, by itself, made a mistake and allowed a cakewalk for BJP. People must know that political parties often try to present things in a way that serves their point of view and creates a narrative they want. But it is very important that people start verifying facts before accepting them.
Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who nowadays acts more like an athlete than a Chief Minister, also made the same accusation that PDP helped BJP. But he has forgotten that his own party president — who is also his father — thanked PDP for helping NC secure three seats. So how suddenly did PDP help BJP win a seat? PDP has only four seats, and BJP got eight extra votes. Tell people where these four came from. Out of those four, we know about two. But the other two still remain a mystery. NC is not able to find who cast these two votes that helped BJP win a seat.
Importantly, we need to understand that NC promised PDP they would help them pass a bill if they supported them in the Rajya Sabha elections. PDP kept the promise, but NC betrayed.
National Conference claims that around 13 lakh pellets were fired during 2016, which may be true. But do they not need to tell people who introduced pellet guns and defended them as a “non-lethal” weapon? It was Omar Abdullah who brought pellet guns to Kashmir. Pellet guns are used for animals, but National Conference got them for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. As per information available online, 10,000 to 20,000 people have been affected by pellets since 2010, which means the NC government used a significant number of pellets. A study at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences during the 2010 unrest recorded 198 pellet gun injuries in a single study group, indicating widespread use in that period. But NC is accusing PDP of using pellets without even recalling what they did when they were in government from 2010 to 2014. The people injured by pellets during the NC government include not only adults but minors as well. NC has hidden its pellet story under the PDP-BJP alliance.
Back in 2024 during election rallies, they told people the same thing — that PDP allied with BJP and that helped BJP abrogate Article 370. Which is not true. We all know who actually abrogated Article 370. The signatures on the Kashmir accord are enough to narrate the story. I will not rebut the allegations made by NC regarding PSA and UAPA. We all know who introduced PSA and who defended it. UAPA was originally introduced by Indira Gandhi, which was then amended in 2008, and again in 2019 by the BJP, allowing the government to designate an individual as a terrorist.
I do not want anyone to frame an opinion after reading this article. All facts should be verified and then accepted. Blindly following someone’s opinion leads to nothing but confusion. National Conference made people believe things that had no standing, and we ended up giving them a thumping majority. People are now regretting believing them blindly.
(Note:Raqif Makhdoomi is a law student and a human rights activist.)
