January 02
Dr. Bashir Veeri The President of National Conference for the volatile South Kashmir districts of Shopian, Pulwama, Islamabad (Anantnag) and Kulgam in a interview with The Kashmiriyat has said that the security situation in Kashmir valley in general and South Kashmir in particular has deteriorated in the past few years to an extreme that it has got tough for the members of the pro establishment groups to go out to the public.
He also said that the Kashmir imbroglio needs to be understood in a historical context. “The rulers from New Delhi have never fulfilled their promises regarding the plebiscite to people of Jammu Kashmir.” He told The Kashmiriyat that Kashmir issue needs to be resolved amicably and a politics needs not be pushed to the back-burner. “Sheikh Abdullah was arrested for twenty two years, we have sacrificed for the cause of Kashmir and its people, Historically if we read the problem, the NC has always been deceived by the centre, we have always been on the receiving end,” he said. In 2001 when we passed the autonomy resolution in the assembly, the Indian state responded by creating People’s Democratic Party to weaken National Conference and its commitment to the cause of Autonomy. “Though we will always stand for the dogma of our party, we will always want autonomy, we will stand for Article 370 and safeguard it,” he said.
Responding to a question, he said that National Conference if voted to power will do anything to bring in the autonomy resolution in the assembly. ‘We will also try to stop the Operation All out of the Indian Army to stop the ongoing bloodshed in the valley, enough blood has been spilled in these years of BJP- PDP rule,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
Bashir Veeri who was a practicing doctor till 2008 told The Kashmiriyat that the party will do anything to stop BJP to be back in power in Jammu Kashmir. “There is no question of joining hands with BJP unlike our regional opponents,” he said. He said that People’s democratic party has lost the faith of public in South Kashmir as it got majority of the votes with the promise that it intended to keep ‘BJP out of Kashmir’ but at last it joined hands with them to form a Government in 2014.
He said that everyone fighting for Kashmir is a martyr and said that like Bhagat Singh was a martyr to Indians, these Kashmiri men are martyrs to us and like Bhagat Singh was a terrorist to English, Kashmiri young men are terrorists to Indians. He said that the Indian media is running on the directions of a majoritarian narrative which has been propagated in the BJP years since 2014.
Responding to a question if the decision of staying away from the Urban Local body polls and the Panchayat polls was as deliberate one to provide in-routes to BJP into the valley, Dr. Veeri said that the National conference could have won the elections easily as there was an anti PDP wave in the valley, but it cost us a lot to be away from the elections, “This is mere propaganda,” he said.
He said that the National Conference is hopeful of bagging ten to twelve seats in the Southern Kashmir districts out of the 28 total seats. “There is no probability of pre-poll alliance with any party as the youth of the state want National conference to come into power and contest the elections separately.”