‘Chance to break your silence without fear’: In Srinagar, PDP youth leader strikes a chord

In his campaign, the 36-year-old amplifies the same pitch, and holding small meetings every few kilometres in different districts, urges people to “break the silence enforced on Kashmir” with their vote.

“The sense of suffocation needs a vent. The detentions, thought policing, political vacuum, all of this need to be addressed. All our issues are with Delhi and, for that, we need to be in Parliament. We need representatives who will not be silent bystanders but the voice of the people,” he says.

A woman holds a placard that says “Mera pehla vote, Waheed ke liye.” (Express)

Speaking to The Indian Express, Para says: “Since August 2019, no single decision taken for Kashmir has involved the people of Kashmir. This is why there is a sense that people have lost their agency, especially the young, who feel disempowered every day.” Having their representative in Parliament would give them a stake in how they want to be governed, he says.

Para adds: “Our effort is to talk to the voter about the impact of August 5, 2019. We have one generation in graves, one in jails and another implicated in various cases. We have to gather our courage and walk to the polling centre.”

Since the abrogation of Article 370, and the clampdown on mainstream as well as separatist parties before and after it, the Lok Sabha polls are the first big political exercise in J&K. Assembly elections have not been held in the erstwhile state since 2014, with J&K under Governor’s and then President’s rule since 2018. In the DDC polls held in 2020, the PDP was part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration that together won 110 of the 280 seats.

The delimitation held in J&K last year added parts of South Kashmir – Pulwama, Shopian, Rajpora – to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, making it a broader constituency than its earlier urban character. On paper this should help the PDP as Para has a good grassroots network in these parts.

Waheed Para at a roadshow, as part of his Lok Sabha campaign. (Express)

But the PDP may feel the pain of the INDIA bloc failing to reach an understanding in Kashmir. The other prominent candidates in the fray include the National Conference’s Aga Ruhulla Mehdi, an influential Shia cleric, and the J&K Apni Party’s Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who has the support of Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference. There are 21 other candidates in the seat, most of them Independents.

It was in 2013 that Para joined the PDP, led at the time by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and swiftly rose through the ranks. What helped him primarily was his appeal among the youths, and the success he had in getting them to the polling booths during the 2014 Assembly elections.

The PDP won 28 seats in that year’s Assembly polls, and with no party getting a majority, joined hands with the BJP that had won 25 seats in the Jammu province to form the government. It was an unlikely coalition on all accounts given the PDP’s reputation as being “soft” towards separatists, and the government finally fell in 2018 after a long period of unrest.

Vote share in the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that followed, Srinagar saw a turnout of just over 14%. The areas now added to the constituency saw a turnout of less than 2%, the lowest in the region. The NC won Srinagar in 2019 with 57.14% of the votes, with the PDP getting a little under 20%. This was quite a fall for the PDP that had won Srinagar in 2014 with 50% of the votes.

One thing Para is striving for is ensuring a good turnout. As he urges people to come out and vote, he says polling will “definitely see an uptick”.

Para’s campaign also terms this election a “referendum”. At a gathering in Gutlibagh, he reminds them that Assembly elections were held as far back as 10 years ago, and says: “We are all sitting quietly inside our homes. Everyone is afraid to speak for fear of being picked up by the police… This election is an opportunity to voice your opinion without fear.”

As Para makes his regular halts, a small crowd gathers at every stop, including men and women of all age groups. Many say a candidate has come to their village for the first time; several more express a feeling of familiarity with Para.

There is also a sense of sympathy for Para due to his personal travails, with the PDP leader getting bail only after 17 months of being arrested in December 2020, on charges of alleged terror funding by the NIA. The arrest had come five days after Para announced his candidature for the DDC polls from his home seat of Naira in Pulwama.

He won the DDC election while still in jail, with the family campaigning on his behalf.

PDP’s Srinagar candidate Waheed Para. (Express)

Granting him bail, the J&K High Court termed the evidence produced by the J&K Police as “sketchy”, and said it could not form the basis on “which the court can formulate an opinion that the allegations proved during the investigation are prima facie true”.

However, many are weighing the sympathy for Para against the political baggage of the PDP’s coalition with the BJP. Rivals have attacked the party for “paving the way for the BJP”, eventually leading to the abrogation of Article 370. But people temper this with acknowledgment of the fact that Para was not an elected member at any level of governance at the time.

Says Gulzar Ahmad, 63: “Para deserves a chance. He is young and we are happy to place our hopes with him.”

On the PDP’s alliance with the BJP, Ahmad says, “That was a different time, no one could have imagined how things would turn out. However, Waheed is like a son to us and we are all waiting to vote for him.”