Gowhar Geelani 
For many decades, South Kashmir’s Kulgam district has been a communist citadel and a bastion of the Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) as well.
Since 1989, the region has also witnessed the worst of armed militancy and the horrors of violence.
It is from here that Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, is currently facing a stiff electoral challenge from an independent candidate Sayyar Ahmad Reshi, who is purportedly backed by the proscribed JeI.
The Wire caught up with Tarigami in Kulgam, his hometown.
“I am not an astrologer and cannot predict the outcome of the elections. However, given the mood of the voters, it appears that I will be given another chance to serve my people in the Kulgam constituency,” said Tarigami, who has registered wins in the last four assembly elections in 1996, 2002, 2008 and 2014. But for him, a fifth win is no cakewalk.
Reshi, whose election symbol is a laptop, poses a real challenge.
Ghulam Nabi Dar, the candidate of the J&K National Conference, Kashmir’s oldest political formation, won the Kulgam assembly seat way back in 1977 and 1983. Abdul Razzak Mir, a candidate for the erstwhile Muslim United Front or the Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, stunned everyone by winning the Kulgam segment in 1987. However, from 1996 onwards, Kulgam has remained Tarigami’s stronghold.
Tarigami refuses to describe the electoral contest between him and the allegedly JeI-backed Reshi as a fight between communism and Islamism. “I never fought elections based on socialism. I tried to bring development to Kulgam, and I partially succeeded in my endeavour…No, it is not a fight between Islam and Socialism. Muslims of Kulgam have been voting for me and electing me as their representative. I hope this trend continues.”
Tarigami acknowledges that the assembly elections are being held in an altered political landscape after 10 years, at a time when Jammu and Kashmir is no longer a state, downgraded into two union territories, does not have a separate flag or separate constitution, and has also lost its semi-autonomy and special status granted previously under Articles 370 and 35A until August 5 2019.
“Our state has been assaulted as far as our constitutional rights are concerned, and we have been virtually downgraded to a level of municipality. And they (the Bharatiya Janata Party) are not stopping this process. In the recent past, they have disempowered our legislature and cabinet and all that, and (instead) empowered an unelected representative (lieutenant governor) of the Union government,” he told The Wire in an exclusive interview.
“There have been significant distortions of the rights that we have had as a state. Whether it is downgrading the status of our Prime Minister (Wazir-e-Azam) or president (Sadr-e-Riyasat), we have been virtually disarmed. I disagree with what happened earlier. My party’s position has been in favour of genuine peace and restoration of genuine conditions of accession or whatever the pact was in place. All of that has to be respected,” he said.
Tarigami added that what happened on August 5, 2019 was an assault on the very bond of relationship between Kashmir and Delhi. “It was not only an assault on the people of Jammu and Kashmir; it was an assault on the republic itself, it was an assault on federalism.”
Further, he said that whatever was done on the day happened without the consent of the people of Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu. According to him, people in all three regions are unhappy with the decisions made then and they feel “disempowered, helpless and hopeless.”
Tarigami expressed disappointment over the prevailing situation, saying that free speech, media freedom, and the freedom to assemble, express or associate have been choked and curtailed in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the “forced silence is being misconstrued as peace in J&K.”
The Communist veteran criticised the delimitation exercise as well. He alleged that the seats in Jammu were increased from 37 to 43 to help the ruling dispensation, BJP. According to him, the mushrooming of independent candidates across the restive region is happening with a design to fragment the vote in the Kashmir valley and was done at the behest of the BJP.
On the death of Communist leader Sitaram Yechury, Tarigami noted, “We the people of Kashmir have lost a good friend.”
Watch the interview here: