SRINAGAR, Sept 19: Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi railed against both Pakistan and the ruling Hindu nationalists at an election rally here on Thursday.
The rally was held under ultra-tight security, with dozens of para-military troops patrolling the areas around the stadium.
Sonia last week cancelled plans to travel to Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s summer capital, amid fears for her safety.
In her speech Sonia Gandhi, chief of the Congress party, warned radical Hindu groups against carving Kashmir up along religious lines.
“Our stand is clear in this regard: we will not allow the division of the state.”
She said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and another Hindu-radical group, Rashtriya Sewak Sangh (RSS), wanted to divide thye held state into Hindu-Jammu, Muslim-Kashmir and Buddhist-dominated Ladakh.
“Pakistan also wants that. Such acts embolden the enemy and increase terrorism,” she said, as heavily-armed commandos stood guard around the raised podium in the stadium where she was addressing her supporters.
She accused Pakistan of fomenting trouble in Kashmir.
“Pakistan cannot weaken India’s relation with Kashmir through terrorism,” she said.
No time for pleasure: As a young mother, Sonia Gandhi used to enjoy her family trips to held Kashmir with her husband and his mother, mixing with Kashmiris and enjoying the cool Himalayan climate in the Switzerland of the East.
But there was no mixing and no time for pleasure on Thursday as India’s main opposition leader made a brief, tightly guarded visit to drum up support for her party in occupied Kashmir’s elections from behind bullet-proof glass.
“Kashmir has a very deep relationship with my family,” she told the faithful crowd of a little over a thousand, some of whom had waited hours in the hot sun for her 20-minute speech.
“I remember those days when I used to come with Indira, Rajiv and my children to Kashmir. But today, there is a difference as wide as from the ground to the sky. The Kashmir which was once known as paradise on earth, today people are afraid to come.”
Much has changed for both Kashmir and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, founded by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, himself a Kashmiri, since those idyllic holidays.
Few tourists, Indian or foreign, now visit the held state, where more than 35,000 people have died in 13 years of revolt against Indian rule.
And Sonia Gandhi’s husband, Rajiv, and mother-in-law Indira, both former prime ministers, were assassinated for their stands on different revolts in Sri Lanka and East Punjab.
“I feel your pain,” she said.
Little more than a blurred silhouette behind the glass as she spoke, Sonia was kept at least a full cricket pitch — the elevated dais was set squarely on the batting crease — away at all times from the supporters who had been bussed in.
PALE, DRAWN: She looked pale, her voice weak and appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest under an unusually voluminous brown shawl.
Anti-India groups have vowed to derail the election in occupied Kashmir.
More than 460 people have died since the poll was announced on Aug 2, including a heavily protected minister.
Monday’s first round of voting was largely peaceful, but officials fear violence will increase as other dangerous areas, including Srinagar and its surroundings, vote over the next three Tuesdays before counting begins.
Two workers of the state’s ruling National Conference, were gunned down on Wednesday on the streets of Srinagar, which votes in Tuesday’s second round.
But many Kashmiris are refusing to vote, either out of fear of the militants or anger at Indian rule.
In a show of choreographed spontaneity, separate male and female cheer squads competed to show the loudest support for the party, but had long exhausted themselves by the time she arrived in her bullet-proof white Ambassador almost two hours late.
And while the rally was held in one of the safest places in Srinagar — next to the chief minister’s office — many in the cheer squads covered their faces, including one youth with a small American flag, to avoid being identified.
“We want peace,” said 21-year-old university student Faika Bhatt, who said she would defy the militants and vote on Tuesday.
“The elections mean peace, God willing,” she added.
But for some, it was just a chance to see a member of India’s famous ruling dynasty in the flesh, the first national party leader to campaign in occupied Kashmir for 15 years.
“We came to see Soniaji,” said a 22-year-old university student. “We like her, she is trying to fight against the evil-doers. We wanted to see her up close.”
Will he vote for Congress?
“No,” he says, laughing. “We want a plebiscite. We want independence.”—AFP/Reuter