'The wave of terrorism is over in Kashmir. Local people do not support it.'
The Rajpora constituency in south Kashmir is drawing the most attention in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election campaign.
And the centre of attention is Daisy Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit woman who has decided to contest elections on a Republican Party of India-Athavale ticket.
South Kashmir is a traditional stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party led by Mehbooba Mufti but that does not bother Raina as she feels that Kashmiris are fed up with local parties like the National Conference and the PDP and are looking for a change.
Her opponents in Rajpora include candidates from both the NC (Ghulam Moidduin Mir) and PDP (Syed Bashir Ahmed).
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com met Daisy Raina in Rajpora, which votes on September 18, to know why she chose to contest the election and what made her return and settle down in Kashmir after 30 years.
You were living in Delhi, so how did you land up in Rajpora to contest elections?
I was in Delhi for the last 33 years, but my heart was always in Kashmir. I always kept coming to Kashmir and kept my children too in touch with Kashmir.
I was working in te Indian Railways and my (family) responsibility was too much. My husband too was in a government job. Finally, when my responsibility got over I came to settle down in Kashmir in 2020.
Is your ancestral home in Rajpora from where you are contesting?
No, my ancestral house is in Pulwama (adjacent to Rajpora). I have been working there as a sarpanch since 2020.
I had not joined any party for the last four years, but did a lot of social service by doing panchayat work.
Village boys told me that I must contest the assembly elections because of my good work. They felt I will be able to bring in more change in their lives for their betterment.
Unfortunately, when I saw the political parties of Kashmir, be it the NC or PDP, I felt they only come to get votes and after that they do not do the people's work.
Since, I have been working as a sarpanch I decided to contest elections.
Why and when did you leave Kashmir?
On January 23, 1990, I left Kashmir. At that time I was staying at my aunt's place at Habbakadal.
If you recall, everyone in Kashmir came on the roads at that time and gave a call for Azaadi on January 19, 1990, so we left Srinagar four days later. However, I always kept coming to Kashmir every year.
But why contest on an RPI-Athavale ticket, a Maharashtra-based party?
For the simple reason, RPI-A speaks for the downtrodden in society.
Will people in your constituency relate to a Dalit party which has its base in Maharashtra?
There are scheduled tribes and schedule castes in the Muslim community too who live in Rajpora.
They have no voice in politics. They have no waterpipe connections at home.
In January this year, when I went to some of their homes, I realised that their pipes were frozen because of extreme cold and they were not getting water at home.
They live on top of mountains where they had not got tube wells too. They were facing a lot of difficulties in cooking food.
I then got Rs 18 lakh (Rs 1.8 million) sanctioned from government funds with the help of officers and only then they started getting water in their pipelines. We speak a lot about scheduled tribes, but nobody does work for them.
You put your phone number on pamphlets, telling voters if they have any problem they can call you.
Yes, that is the strategy I have adopted in Rajpora.
Poor people want water and electricity at home. Unfortunately, when their connection gets cut for some or the other reason, like bad weather, they do not know how to restore it.
These are the small things that you can do easily and help out poor people but they do not know whom to approach.
So, I leave my phone number on pamphlets so that they can call me any time they want. I have implemented these things in Pulwama as a panchayat leader and now I want to implement this in Rajpora too.
As a Kashmiri Pandit woman in the fray, how are people seeing you?
I do not think about such things. I do work for everyone and go door to door if they need me.
I have been trying to convince voters that the government is giving you all kind of facilities, but it is they who need to choose the right MLA.
Did you ever get scared to roam around Pulwama because it was known for terrorism as recently as last year?
I never got scared since my childhood. I was a dabangg (brave) type of leader in my college.
In Pulwama all youth call me 'Dabangg Aunty'.
They are the ones who told me to contest elections and said that I need to be chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir for a day at least.
They have seen me doing work and how smoothly I got done people's work in government offices. I used to sit there till late evening until the work got done.
What is your view on Article 370? How have things changed in Kashmir in your view?
It is good for Kashmir. Kashmiri parties scared innocent Kashmiri Muslims that Hinduism will spread if Article 370 was removed.
The transformation of Kashmir in terms of infrastructure has been great after the removal of Article 370. Highways are being built at great speed and so many tunnels are being made for better connectivity of roads from one point of Kashmir to another.
Everyone wants development in Kashmir, but local parties spread hatred.
Now, a new generation has to bridge the gap. This feeling has to come from both sides, Hindus as well as Muslims.
And I am seeing the local response among young Kashmiri generation is very good.
Did you face any terrorist threat personally?
Once, I did encounter militants in the fields of Pulwama. They told me they have heard that I do good work in Pulwama. And they assured that I will never be harmed by them.
You won't believe, after my encounter with them the very next day those four militants were killed in an encounter.
Do you feel militancy has ended in south Kashmir?
If people do not support them it will be over.
Earlier Kashmiris used to say 'Pakistan, Pakistan', but now they say 'Hindustan, Hindustan'.
People are aware that our central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sending a lot of funds to Kashmir.
There is huge awareness among the Kashmiri people about this fact.
The wave of terrorism is over in Kashmir. Local people do not support it.
At the same time they are fed up of local Kashmiri political parties too. They do not want to vote for them.
They understand now that these are the same parties which put them in jail and brought the drug culture to Kashmir and destroyed the lives of youth.
What was the first reaction of the people of Pulwama when you started staying there?
I never felt any discrimination from locals in Pulwama for being a Kashmiri Pandit.
I used to roam around without security and people showered me with love.
Kashmiri Muslims want Pandits to come back to the Valley.
It is only outside the Kashmir Valley that a perception is there that Kashmir is full of militants. It is not true. I have spoken about this fact in many forums.
Some local Muslims were used for militancy by people sitting abroad. This fact, all Kashmiri Muslims have realised the hard way.
Therefore, you see that local support in terms of numbers have come down to nil.
I feel sad when I see so many Kashmiri youth languishing in jails as stone pelters or for any other such crime. They all were brainwashed in the name of Azaadi by people living comfortable lives abroad.
Why do we not see the return of Kashmiri Pandits in big numbers then?
They will come. You've got to understand, when the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits happened in 1990s the only thing they spent their own money on was the education of their children.
We Kashmiri Pandits had no assets after we left and the only asset we had were our children. So, we put all our resources in the education of our asset, that is our children. And now every Kashmiri Pandit is well settled in other cities of India.
I feel they will come back to Kashmir.
What about you? Will you remain in Kashmir forever?
Yes, be there bullets or storms I will never leave Kashmir. I love Kashmir.
The person who feels pain for Kashmir only can live in Kashmir, and I am one of them.
