‘Our agenda is to give voice to people’
Fayaz Bukhari
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Youth wing president and candidate for Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, Waheed ur Rehman Para has asked youth of Kashmir to cast their vote to get their voice heard in the Parliament.
In an exclusive interview to Excelsior, Para asked the youth that after witnessing separatism, militancy, and strikes for the last three decades, they should check the potency of vote.
“We try to reach out to the youth, talk to them, and involve them in the process. We have seen separatism, militancy, and hartals for the last three decades. After witnessing all this, we request youth to check the vote as it is their last resort and a potent weapon,” he said.
Para asked youth that they need not to die for Kashmir but live for it. “You do not need to die for Kashmir; you need to live for it. If you have empathy for Kashmir, you need to cast your vote as it will bring change, and your voice will reach the highest pedestals of the country,” he said.
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The PDP youth president said that he is reaching out to youth in his constituency and trying to convince them to vote.
“…we are following the youth by reaching out to them and not forcing them to come out. We are also creating a space for small conversations wherein they feel we are equal, and we want to work with them, unlike typically giving them speeches in rallies as they do not like it. We try to listen to them, try to understand their viewpoint, and motivate them to join us in this process,” he added.
Para said that his party’s agenda is to give a voice to the people. “When people break their silence and start to talk using democracy, they then talk about their rights themselves. Today, we have reminded the Kashmiris about their Constitutional and democratic rights, and there is so much fear that no one is willing to talk,” he added.
The PDP youth leader said that there is a sense of hopelessness among the youth, and unless the youth feel there is hope, they would lose aim for living. “I think this is an opportunity in itself, and I think the youth of Jammu and Kashmir understand the importance of being part of the political process and voting, especially PDP’s manifesto and the voice of its president, Mehbooba Mufti,” he added.
The PDP youth leader said that his party is fighting the election to ensure to get Kashmir out of the perpetual uncertainty through dialogue, reconciliation, or the political process. “Article 370 is the latest burning issue here, but there are core issues in Kashmir,” he added.
He said that his party wants Jammu and Kashmir to emerge as a success story in Indian democracy.
“We do not have control over our resources; our children are not getting admissions in different universities. The students who study outside become victims of hate crimes and face lynching. The people who are in different jails, whose families are worried. We want the main issues to be discussed so that there are not enforced people, and there should be consent and inclusion of people, and issues be resolved with talks,” he said.
The PDP youth leader said that jail was the most difficult period for him and he wanted to get out. “…it was consuming and painful, and it is a perpetual trauma. I had lost hope of any immediate release, and when I got bail after two years, I slowly started to normalize, started working at home, and socializing,” he said.
“…it was a traumatic phase, and reminding myself of that phase gives me a lot of stress. It takes a lot of time to come out of that traumatic phase, and that phase remains around you psychologically because jail weakens you mentally,” he added.
The PDP leader said that he was put behind the bars simply because he was a Kashmiri. “I was a believer in the Constitution, an advocate of pro-India politics, and worked as per the principles of democracy, so it was really difficult for me to process why I was behind bars. The big question is that I had not engaged in any separatism, not thrown stones, and never supported violence. Instead, I was lodged in jail for the simple fact that I am Kashmiri,” he added.
Para said that he had a party behind who were advocating for his release but there are hundreds of people in jails and no one raises their voice.
“I had the support of many people, the party, and the leadership of my party. Mehbooba Mufti continuously spoke about me, so there were a lot of people supporting me, and we could face it. But there are a lot of people who had no one to advocate for them, whose families could not afford legal representation, whose relatives are broken, and whose friends give up, making them vulnerable in jail,” he said.
When asked why he didn’t leave the party as others did post 2019, the PDP youth leader said that others had many scams and corruption cases against them, so they got scared.
“We worked with the government but did not commit corruption or wrongdoing, and there are no scams against us. We helped in releasing many youths, but that was part of our integration and transformation program. We wanted the youth to leave violence and engage in democracy, and we could change 8 out of 10 people. You can’t make that an allegation against us,” he said.
Para said that BJP didn’t contest polls in Kashmir as it has no grip on the ground here. “They knew that it would benefit the local regional parties because people hate BJP here. Secondly, they have allies here,” he added.
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