Separatists for social boycott of politicians

Kashmiri separatists on Wednesday called for social boycott of legislators and other activists associated with the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and other mainstream parties after dubbing them as “collaborators” in Indian “occupation”.

“People shall ostracise them and boycott them at all levels, socially and publicly. People shall refuse to interact with them at community and public places. They shall no longer be allowed to exploit the people and the sacred freedom struggle,” a statement issued here by the recently formed “issue-based” loose alliance of key separatist leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, said.

The separatist leaders had last week asked the PDP legislators to rise in revolt against chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, abandon her and come back to their people. A similar “ultimatum” was served on the legislators of other mainstream parties including the main opposition National Conference (NC). But the same was ignored by these parties and their cadres.

Now, reiterating the charge that they were “collaborators and loyalist abettors” of the Government of India (GoI) and its “subversive agencies”, the separatists also accused them of being equal partners in the “crime” against the people of Kashmir. “Since 1947 these collaborators have provided a local face to India’s authoritarian rule which New Delhi exploits internationally to undermine our freedom struggle,” the statement said. Taking on the ruling party directly, it said, “Since they claim to ‘represent people’ whom they have gravely betrayed, it is time that people hold them accountable and answerable and pressurize them to vacate.”

The last time that a “social boycott” call was issued against a mainstream party in Kashmir was in the early 1970s when Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, then spearheading the pro-plebiscite movement, called for “Tark-e-Mawalaat” or social boycott of the Congress party, terming those associated with it as “Gandi naali kay keedey” (worms of the gutter).

Also, a few such voices were raised by a couple of militant outfits against “pro-India” political groups’ during the heyday of insurgency in the 1990s, but without leaving much impact on the ground.

Nevertheless, many activists of mainstream political parties, mainly National Conference, had already announced their “disassociation” from these parties through paid advertisements in local newspapers whereas their entire leadership with a few exceptions fled the Valley to live and operate from Jammu and Delhi for years to come.

Citing the recent killing of over 50 civilian protesters and imposition of long curfews in the Valley, the separatists also alleged, “The brazenness and starkness of India’s aggressive colonial approach towards the people of Kashmir becomes more and more evident by the day. The use of such excessive brute force on the people, in the past 19 days, once again reinforces that GoI sees the people of Kashmir as their subjects whose self-assertion and resistance to the colonial rule has to be suppressed with an iron hand.”

Turning their anger at the PDP and other mainstream parties, they said, “For India’s local collaborators facilitating the oppression of their own people, their moment of reckoning and introspection, is over.” It added that the ‘social boycott’ call was being issued against the PDP lawmakers and those from other mainstream parties as they chose to ignore their plea to quit and return to their people. “Last week, an appeal was made to whatever integrity is left in them, that since they could not stop loss of human life and mass killing of the people, they are being given a chance to come back, and for once, support the truth. But instead, they declared the death of their conscience, the bankruptcy of their values,” the statement said.

It also said, “The lust for the chair is so overwhelming in them as in their predecessors from the NC and Congress that not even the butchery of more than 50 young boys and girls, mostly teenagers, and the blinding of over 150 people, many among them being little children, is enough to shake them up. The pain and agony of thousands of those maimed and injured, falls on their deaf ears.

“They have chosen to become deaf, dumb and blind to the suffering and torture of their people. In fact, watching the carnage as mute spectators, they give their tacit support to it. They have simply stopped being human. And when they are out of “power’, they are degraded further, exploiting the sacrifices of freedom-seeking people for furthering their political ambition of assuming ‘power’”.