candidate from Srinagar, Waheed Parra on Saturday asked the people of Kashmir to treat the Lok Sabha elections as a referendum to send a message to New Delhi.
“The youth of Srinagar and especially Kashmir should not treat this election as less than a referendum. Your vote should become your referendum. There is a need to send a message to New Delhi that they don’t treat the silence of Kashmir as happiness,” Parra said during his poll campaigning in Srinagar.
Parra said that people here are silent but they are not happy with New Delhi and there are so many reasons for this.
The PDP’s Parra, who is pitted against the National Conference’s influential Shia leader Aga Roohullah and Apni Party’s Ashraf Mir said that the future of youth here is uncertain and people were scared.
Parra appealed to the people of Srinagar to set a trend for voting and that message would trickle to every place in Kashmir.
“It is not about a win or a loss. Can we send a message to New Delhi that we people of Kashmir are not happy? Can we tell New Delhi that we have fears about our identity, our land, our jobs, and contracts …. We feel all these things are in danger,” PDP leader said.
Parra said the people of Kashmir need to be heard and these fears need to be addressed.
“ The biggest assurance needs to come from the Parliament as we want our issues and fears to be addressed by them,” he said.
PDP leader said the issue is not what happened on August 5, 2019- when J&K’s special status was scrapped and the state was degraded into two union territories.
“ The issue is the entire Kashmir problem… We have lost thousands of people. Thousands are in jails, people are buried in graves. Our next generation is slipping out of our hands. On one side there are drugs and on the other side, the young and educated are in depression. Our entire generation is in danger,” Parra said, adding that to save the people and youth they should treat this election as no less than a referendum.
