Will support INDIA bloc candidates if they promise to restore Article 370, says Engineer Rashid

SRINAGAR: Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) supremo Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer on Thursday said that he would support the INDIA bloc candidates in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections if the opposition group promises to restore Article 370 of the Constitution whenever they come to power at the Centre.

“If INDIA alliance assures us that it will restore Article 370 when it comes to power in Delhi, I will tell every candidate of mine to pledge each vote of their supporters for them,” Rashid, who won the Lok Sabha elections from the Baramulla constituency, told reporters here.

Rashid was released on interim bail by a court on Wednesday to campaign for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said if India has to achieve the dream of being a global power, it will have to address the Kashmir issue.

“If India has to be Vishwaguru, Kashmir has to be resolved. If you (Modi) have a better solution, please tell us. You are saying that the other side (of Kashmir) wants to join this side. It may be true as well but how do we find out?” he asked.

The firebrand politician, who is facing charges of terror funding, said if he is being branded as a separatist for talking about resolution of the Kashmir issue, then the entire north Kashmir region was secessionist as they have voted for him.

“I want to make it clear that we are neither enemies of India, nor agents of Pakistan. We are agents of our conscience. Modi has snatched everything from us on August 5, 2019 — illegally and unconstitutionally,” he said.

He said Article 370 will not be restored by making statements inside the comfort of homes.

“How will 370 come back? You will have to protest at Lal Chowk and be ready to be hit by batons. But they (National Conference and PDP) cannot do it. When Amit Shah said no one can give back the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir except the BJP government, they did not even dare to say we will fight for it. It does not mean one has to be violent. Gandhiji did it through non violence,” he added.

He expressed pity over PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s statement against him, saying she was deposed from the chair of the chief minister through a tweet by BJP leader Ram Madhav.

“Had Mehbooba resigned to protest the BJP plans to revoke Article 370, I would have said that she is a lioness. But she did not even know when Ram Madhav tweeted that the (PDP-BJP) government is no more,” he said.

He also claimed that National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah was aware in advance that the Centre is going to revoke Article 370.

Rashid hit out at those who tried to project that he won the Lok Sabha elections due to sympathy vote.

“The vote for me was not emotional outpouring. It was against Modi’s Naya Kashmir. It was a vote for work that I had done in Langate (assembly segment) on human rights and development,” he said, adding he had secured only 600 votes less than the runner up candidate in the 2019 assembly elections.

Rashid claimed that in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, he was pressured to support “the BJP proxy in north Kashmir” but he refused and paid the price for it.

“I don’t want to add bitterness to the discourse… I was denied basic facilities available to (jail) inmates because I refused to support the BJP proxy, the candidate who came third (Sajad Lone). I was put in the ward of mental patients for one and half months. I have no regrets if this is the price to pay for truth,” he said.

Rashid also took potshots at National Conference leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

“Had you (Omar) talked about people’s issues, you would not have needed to lower your cap in Ganderbal and contest from two seats,” he said.

The MP also predicted that both Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone and Omar Abdullah will lose the assembly elections from both seats that they are contesting.

While Lone is contesting from Handwara and Kupwara segments, Abdullah is a candidate from Ganderbal and Budgam seats.

Asked why is his detention any different from the incarceration of other mainstream politicians post abrogation of Article 370, Rashid said “comparing my five years in Tihar to (their) detention at SKICC is an injustice to my sacrifice”.

“All politicians were put in SKICC and I was singled out for Tihar. I would not wish even my enemy to see the door of that jail,” he added. (PTI)