Politics in Jammu and Kashmir currently is at fever pitch as this strategically located region prepares for first Assembly polls since Article 370 abrogation.
Polling will be held in three phases on September 18 and 25, and on October 1 to elect 90 members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes will take place on October 8.
Brighter Kashmir spoke to Javed Hubbi, President of the Budgam Bar Association and candidate of the Engineer Rashid-led Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), to get his sense of what he was expecting from the polls and why he had decided to throw his hat in the electoral ring.
Hubbi said he is contesting polls out of a desire to be a social activist who delivers to the people of J&K in general and those living in the Budgam-Charar-e-Sharif assembly constituency in particular their fundamental socio-economic basics, which was constitutionally theirs as a matter of right.
“Participation in politics must never be thought of as a legacy. I find a lot of our politicians and leaders converting their participation in politics into a profession. I am a lawyer and will remain a lawyer by profession. My role in politics will be that of a social activist and I never want to make politics my profession. I want to serve the people; I want to understand their difficulties and how best I can ease their problems,” Hubbi said.
Asked about his equation with AIP founder jailed Er Rashid, Hubbi said both Rashid and he have had a long and familial acquaintance and he is very grateful to Rashid for choosing him to be the AIP candidate for Budgam-Charar-e-Sharif assembly constituency.
“Er Rashid and I have known each other for a long period and I am grateful that he has given me this opportunity to contest the elections on an AIP ticket. Rashid is that one voice in Kashmir who has refused to remain silent on the issues that made the lives of Kashmiris hell. Every time he raised his voice in the state assembly against the black laws governing the region, he was literally thrashed and injured by other MLAs because they felt that Rashid was targeting their vested interests,” he said.
Training his guns on National Conference, Hubbi said, “NC was in power off and on in J&K and in Charar-e-Sharif for 31 years. What have they contributed by way of improving the lives of the people? In 1987, Charar-e-Sharif was designated as a ‘model town’, yet we saw all development taking place in neighbouring Katra with the help of central government aid. Why was Charar-e-Sharif neglected and why was it denied development? I give the example of Yousmarg. In my view, Yousmarg is J&K’s most beautiful and most viable tourism revenue generating locale. Today it does not have sufficient power, women are deprived of work, girls are denied benefits of education and aspirational growth, and there are no parking facilities. So much money has been spent like water across J&K, but no financial allocations for Yousmarg?”
When it was pointed out to him that he and his family have a heritage of separatism attached to themselves and that they have been identified as such in the past, Javed said it is true, “but I wish to point out that in 1983 when Hurriyat Conference was formed and it had stalwarts like Abdul Gani Lone and Syed Ali Shah Geelani as their leaders, my father, Dr G.M. Hubbi, also a founding member of the APHC, was the only one among them who stood up and said elections must not be boycotted and that all Kashmiri leaders must take part in them to achieve their goals and demands democratically.”
“It is my view that what was intended to be a democratic political movement was wrongly converted into a religious movement, and the media played a big hand in promoting this changed narrative. We got identified as terrorists and separatists. Jihad was a political movement and never meant to be a religious or a warmongering slogan. My father has always been a moderate and has always fought for and demanded political rights for all Kashmiris. We are always ready to sit across the table with the Government of India to resolve our issues. Our local politicians are wholly and solely responsible for the introduction of black laws like the Public Safety Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), TADA and POTA that have bedevilled the lives of Kashmiris for decades and generations,” Hubbi said.
Hubbi said the AIP is determined to retract these laws. “We are committed to safeguarding the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. What are these interests – proper supply of water and electricity, restoration of schemes, safeguarding students and traders studying and working outside J&K, etc? Other political parties are talking about providing 200 units of free electricity to each household, but they are not talking about restoring the functioning of closed hydropower projects. The people behind these promises are making a fool of all Kashmiris. I am saying that they have been doing this for the past 70 plus years and through your publication, I want to send out a message that Gen Next Kashmiris won’t accept the status quo, they are better educated, better informed and know what they want from their political leaders and will demand it. The AIP is totally committed to this and will get into the assembly to voice and secure these demands.”
He said AIP is also in favour of restoration of Article 370, but in its full form, not in its truncated form as was done 65 years ago. “The youth of Kashmir can longer be made fools on this particular topic. Why was the Direct Benefit Scheme ineffective before 2019? It was because the money was not going to the people, but into the pockets of the undeserving and the corrupt? Why was my father, a moderate, incarcerated under TADA in 1987 when he was simply going to the polling booth to check on the results? We need to delve deep into why we were declared separatists when we were not supposed to be? Who is responsible for this? It is not the Central Government, but the NC and Farooq Abdullah, who was then the state’s chief minister.”