Jamaat confirms talking to Delhi, says poll move has the mandate of its core group, the public

Panel member Ghulam Qadir Lone released a video message saying the Jamaat would not have entered the poll race if the two National Conference MPs elected in the recent Lok Sabha polls had raised their voice for the outfit and against the ban in Parliament. He also said that the decision to contest elections had the backing of the former Jamaat Shura (executive council).

“Jamaat is a banned organisation and its activities are limited, rather negligible,” Lone said in the video message. “The Jamaat-e-Islami has made a panel to talk to the government for lifting of the ban on the Jamaat. We had the backing of the Shura members (executive council), which was a part of the Jamaat before it was banned. Whatever steps we have taken, they (the Shura) gave us the mandate for it.”

He said they have opened channels with officials in authority so that “we can make it clear to them that the ban on the Jamaat was constitutionally, legally and morally wrong”. “The second thing we did was to participate in elections and invite others as well… The government admits that the voter turnout (in the Lok Sabha polls) increased with our participation,” Lone said.

This, he added, shows that, “our panel is seconded by the Shura, and the people have rallied behind us and seconded that the panel is moving in the right direction”.

Lone said the panel earlier wanted to contest the elections after the ban was lifted, and had appealed to the government for the same. “Since the ban was not lifted, we consciously decided to join the election process as a voter and back some Independent candidates and ask people to vote for them… We are backing them so that they raise their voice for us in the Assembly.”

About the claim in the letter that the Jamaat panel he was a part of was working for the BJP, Lone said it was a BJP government at the Centre that had banned the Jamaat. “First, they should have put their name on this letter. They haven’t and it means it is fake,” he said, noting that the letter was unsigned.

On why the Jamaat had entered into “a strategic alliance” with Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party, Lone said it was because the Baramulla MP who won the recent Lok Sabha polls from behind bars “doesn’t have any past of alliance with the BJP” and has been raising his voice for “human rights and against human rights violations”.

On Tuesday, Rashid hit out at Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s statement in a TV interview seeking stricter laws to prevent organisations like the Jamaat from participating in elections. “If the (Lt) Governor had his way, he would throw all of Kashmir into the Jhelum River. What kind of democracy is this? What has the Jamaat-e-Islami done? What is their fault? This is an organisation that has done a lot of work in the social, moral, and educational sectors in Kashmir,” Rashid told PTI.

In an interview with a private news channel, Sinha had called for stricter laws against organisations like the Jamaat when it came to polls.

Rashid added that his party may have some disagreements with the Jamaat’s policies, but “it has not divided or killed people to spread communal hatred like the BJP”. “When the BJP, with its highly communal agenda, has killed Muslims in the name of cow, spilt Muslim blood over food and drink, and divided all of India along communal lines, what lessons can they teach us?… The Jamaat-e-Islami has done nothing wrong. If they say they want to contest elections or seek a resolution of political issues, it is not a sin.”