SEPARATISTS IN THE FRAY

A BAN IMPOSED IN 2019 STILL HOLDS, BUT THE THAW IN JAMAAT'S STANCE ON POLLS COMES AFTER REPORTED "SECRET" TALKS WITH THE CENTRE

- Moazum Mohammad in Kulgam

Once a hotbed of militancy, Kulgam in south Kashmir has seen a sea change. The enthusiasm for the coming assembly polls is palpable everywhere. On a sunny morning in village Odhura here, a thin security patrol is scanning the eager crowd milling around the main road. They are waiting for Sayar Ahmad Reshi, a 42-year-old MPhil in Political Science and the Kulgam candidate of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (Jel). In a striking departure from the past, when boycott was the norm, a dozen 'separatists', including Jamaat and Hurriyat Conference leaders, have joined the electoral fray this time. The erudite Reshi is one of them.

The rhetoric, though laced by the usual chants of 'Naare-e-takbeer Allahu Akbar' and 'Inquilab zindabad', is markedly different, too, as Reshi begins his maiden campaign speech. "We are citizens of India and have the same rights as anyone in the country. Badlaav (change) has started. I will be the voice of the voiceless, we will prove that there is no one more loyal to India and democracy than us," he says while repeatedly citing the Indian Constitution and the fundamental rights enshrined in it. Incidentally, Reshi's home in Kahrote village was among those raided in February by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in relation to a terror funding case.