Intro: Why blame Geelani kind of separatists when we have terror apologists in Delhi who are helping fulfill the dreams of terrorist Afzal Guru which he could not achieve in his life time.
To win election is a democratic right of a public representative and for that public support is necessary. But taking support of the fringe elements of the society to win the same election becomes a promoting exercise for fringe elements and their mentality.
Jammu and Kashmir has just gone through the Rajya Sabha elections on 7 February- J&K has four Rajya Sabha seats. In this election BJP had got one seat and opened the account in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time. People Democratic Party (PDP) got two seats and National Conference and Congress’ joint candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad got re-elected, defeating BJP candidate Chander Mohan Sharma by a margin of just two votes.
Ahead of the polls, five Congress MLAs had criticized and sought apology for their own Congress government's decision of Guru's execution in February 2013 in a bid to secure crucial support for Ghulam Nabi Azad in the polls.
During this support taking exercise, an independent Kashmiri legislator, Sheikh Abdul Rasheed, who had sponsored the “Save Afzal Guru resolution”, supported Azad in return of Congress MLA’s apology for Guru's hanging. This vote was most crucial for Azad to enter Rajya Sabha as the PDP candidate was behind by just one vote. This democratic process of choosing a Rajya Sabha member was though meant to make democracy stronger but the Congress Party’s actions were not only against the ethics and aims of democracy but they did not even care for sovereignty of the country.
Apart from supporting the terrorists misuse to spread anti-India venom, the separatists also work hard to misguide youths using this incident.
Way back Afzal Guru’s execution day (9 February) was approaching the whole of India was expecting an apology from Congress on the incident; a former senior Congress Minister and a Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor echoed the same voice which created din in the Valley for the past two years, by questioning the hanging of the terrorist. Tharoor tweeted, “I think the hanging was both wrong & badly handled…” Incidents of this kind not only put security of the Kashmir Valley under threat but should also face the charges of sedition.
It is unfortunate that in the race to garner the votes of a misguided sect, the Indian politicians are becoming supporters of the terrorists. Afzal Guru was the mastermind of the attack on the Parliament of the biggest democracy of the world. This makes Afzal Guru the “Biggest Terrorist of India” and cannot be considered just another terrorist. By terming the punishment of a devil a mistake, the Congress party itself has earned the tag of pro-terrorists party which gives a damn for people of this country including Muslims.
Congress has won a single seat in the Rajya Sabha but the real consequence of inferior politics of Congress is the probable neutralisation of all the efforts which brought peace to the Valley.They are misguiding the youth and playing with their future. Next time onwards, Congress should be prepared to take blame along with other separatist and terrorist organisation that are playing hunger games with the precious lives of the youth of the Valley.
Arvind (The writer is a researcher at J&K Study Center, New Delhi.)
