No coincidence that Engineer Rashid and Sarjan Barkati contesting against me: Omar Abdullah

New Delhi: A week before the first vote is cast for the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir on Sept 18, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah reiterated that Engineer Rashid might have the backing from the BJP to undermine his campaign.

In an exclusive interview with senior journalist Bula Devi, Abdullah asserted that Rashid and Sarjan Barkati contesting against him cannot be a coincidence.

In a free-wheeling interview with Bula, Abdullah spoke about his political stance and decisions following significant changes in Jammu and Kashmir's political landscape, particularly after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

Excerpts:

After abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, you said you would not be part of a disempowered assembly. In 2023, you said if 50% people of Jammu and Kashmir press the NOTA button you will quit politics. This time initially you said you would not contest elections. What made you change your mind?

Circumstances. Circumstances change and that causes a change of decision. So circumstances changed. I guess the most important factor was that through conversations with people whose opinion matters to me and also from random sort of strangers reaching out by WhatsApp, email and stuff like that. I was made to realise it was rather hypocritical on my part to ask people to vote for an assembly that I wasn’t willing to be part of.

Basically, I was going to go and tell people that look, I don't believe in this assembly election and I don’t believe that this assembly is the right place. But this assembly certainly is a place that you must vote for. Rightly so, the questions that I was facing were that if this assembly is not good for you then why should we vote for this assembly? Honestly, I didn’t have an answer for that.

As I have told people time and again in my speeches and in countless interviews this isn’t the assembly that we want but this assembly is an important first step towards an empowered assembly once statehood is returned. Those were some of the circumstances that forced me to reconsider my decision.

But the grant of statehood is in the hands of the Centre, right?

Yes.

A section of Kashmiris feels the NC has always shifted its stand. Their argument is that up to 1953, the NC was for safeguarding internal autonomy when Sheikh Abdullah was the prime minister. In 1975 he accepted chief ministership. In 2000, the NC passed an autonomy resolution but it gave up after the Centre rejected the resolution. In the 2008 elections, the NC fought on the autonomy plus plank. And, now the demand for restoration of statehood. What do you have to say?

Nothing. I don’t have anything to say. We have consistently stood by our position vis-a-vis the political sort of roadmap for solution to Jammu and Kashmir. We have not diluted that at any point in time and we continue to stand by that.

Has the Lok Sabha election defeat shaken your confidence?

No. The fact that I am contesting assembly elections two months after losing that one shows my confidence is intact. If my confidence had been shaken I wouldn’t be contesting. I am at the forefront of the campaign of the National Conference and the Congress alliance to defeat the BJP and all those forces that are allied with it in the Kashmir valley. That doesn’t come from a position of shaken confidence. In fact, if anything it comes from a position of confidence that the people will hear what we are saying and hopefully make the right decision.

Engineer Rashid has accused you of being contradictory. According to him during the Lok Sabha elections, you said if you knew he was contesting you would have dropped out, but after you lost you called him a radical. Now you are saying he is a BJP agent.

This is election time, Engineer Rashid is obviously going to say things that suit him. The fact is that more than me it is people like Mehbooba Mufti who first pointed out that Engineer Rashid is acting at the behest of the BJP and forces in Delhi.

As far as not contesting the (LS) election is concerned, that was an initial reaction based on what I believed was a campaign for all the right reasons. I have since come to realise that these people in jail were propped up to fight against me. It can’t be a coincidence that first Engineer Rashid was brought to fight against me in the Parliament election, and Sarjan Barkati was brought out and propped up to fight me in the assembly elections. Once is a possibility, twice is a coincidence but three times is much more than that.

Does the Jamaat-e-Islami’s indirect participation in elections after 37 years surprise you?

No, I think it was building up for the last year or a year-and-a-half. There have been enough indications from the Jamaat-e-Islami that they want their ban lifted so that they can participate in elections.

In reference to your earlier question that a section of Kashmiris talks about dilution in the NC’s stand, I think it would be useful for those who have said this to look at the U-turns that the Jamaat-e-Islami has taken. For 35 years they talked about unifying Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, they talked about not accepting the accession, not accepting the Indian Constitution. Today all of them have signed an oath swearing to both, the unity of India and the Constitution of India. So, what was the last 35 years all about?

As far as their contesting and having an impact on the National Conference is concerned, let’s wait and see. We will wait till October 8.

In 1977 the Jamaat-e-Islami fought the elections along with the Janata Party of which the Jan Sangh was a part.

Yes, the results of the 1977 elections are well known, not to say that the same sort of results will be repeated this time. But, as I said we will have to wait and see. Let’s see how the polling shapes up and what October 8 has to offer us.

How strongly do you believe that Engineer Rashid’s candidates, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s proxies, the host of independent candidates and also from smaller parties are actually sponsored by the BJP to split the votes?

There is clearly a lot of suspicion about them because the BJP itself owns up to these people. No less a person than the Home Minister of India talks about post-poll alliances and rules out one or two parties here but is quite happy to have post-poll alliances with Engineer Rashid, the People’s Conference, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s party, Apni Party, with all independent candidates. The gist of newspaper reports based on what the BJP has told reporters is that they are looking forward to a large number of independent candidates being elected because then they can do business with them. I am paraphrasing.

It is no secret that the BJP is actually hoping that these smaller elements or smaller parties bring in a good number of seats and the BJP then forms the government with them.

Why is the BJP so much against the NC?

The agenda of the NC and the BJP has no common meeting ground. We have been critical of what they did on August 5, 2019, and we continue to highlight the failures, the broken promises and the deceit that went into the post-August 5, 2019 narrative of the BJP.

But you were MoS External Affairs in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. What happened now?

That was a different era. That was Vajpayee who looked at Jammu and Kashmir from the prism of Insaniyat, Jamooriyat and Kashmiriyat. Now, the BJP has a completely different take on how to deal with Jammu and Kashmir, it wants to rule with an iron fist in iron gloves.