aam bandha

Before i let Sajjad Lone do some plain talking ...... would like to make a point. He went into the elections with the platform that he is going to go to the parliament to carry the voice of "Kashmir" ...... is seems the people did not like the idea, so he lost .... a big difference between him and pro India politician ........ infact from the results it seems even his cousins did not vote for him

Now what does he say about the elections ....

Mirwaiz a glorified errand boy of India and Pak: Sajjad Lone

He pointed out that he had been very vociferous in calling for a boycott of the state Assembly polls in November-December but 75 per cent of people in Kupwara, which was his stronghold, had voted. This was a "defeat for me personally", he said

That would be a lot of "cousins" !!!!!!!

CM

Quote from reliable, independent media to support this claim that he said it was a big mistake. Indian media does not count.

janab-e-ali

So your brilliant point is that the people of Kashmir don't like their "voices" being heard? Yes, clearly that's the best explanation for the defeat of a not particularly popular politician, in a state with a legendary history of electoral fraud.
Now what does he say about the elections ....

A lot of cousins indeed...if you actually bother looking at the detailed results for the local assembly elections, you'll see that few candidates won by anything approaching a majority mandate because the votes were so divided between 517 local "independent" candidates, and 43 "political parties." Throw in some draconian curfews and some forced voting out in the villages, plus some aggressive PR effort on the part of the GOI to show that local elections have nothing to do with the Kashmiri independence movement and the final settlement of the state's status (which, in typical two-faced Indian fashion, the GOI immediately reneged on as it declared the turnout a rejection of Kashmiri nationalism)...and you get 51% turnout.

aam bandha

The title says it all

DAWN.COM | World | Kashmiri leader loses election

Kashmiri separatist trounced in polls

aam bandha

Of course people of Kashmir want their voice to be heard, like rest of India. And they do so by electing people who they feel will carry this voice to the parliament.

What it shows that people in his constituence realized that Sajjad had his own agenda to carry to parliament and perhaps he was not in sync with his people !!!!!!


Specifically talking about Sajjad's constituence .... he got 65,000 votes and there were 400,000 voters cast in this constituency.... Sajjad finsihed third ...... There were a total of 13 candidates for his constituency !!!!!! ..... heard he has gone into seclusion after his defeat and is planning to give up politics completely !!!!!!!

janab-e-ali

Which brings us back to the original point...since when does Sajjad Lone personify the entire Kashmiri nationalist movement as a whole? The man is a political opportunist and little more...Kashmiri nationalists could care less about him because he has repeatedly indicated that he would "settle" for autonomy without actual indpendence; and the pro-India factions don't like him because of his on again, off again daliances with the APHC and occasional lipservice to independence.

But as an Indian, I can see you really don't have much of a choice but to grasp at straws. When 51% of Kashmiris allegedly came out to vote a couple months back after your government swore up and down that participation in those polls had nothing to do with Kashmir's final status, people like you arrogantly claimed it was a vote for Indian occupation. And now that 70%+ of Kashmiris have rejected the parliamentary polls (as they have in the past), you have no choice but to harp on the defeat of a pseudo-separatist politician.

Specifically talking about New Delhi's darling puppet, Omar Abdullah...

He won 16,519 votes out of a total of 39,818 votes allegedly cast in Ganderbal (41.5%)...not even half of the total votes supposedly cast. And when you take into account the pathetic turnout, it appears only 21.5% of registered voters bothered to vote for him...probably even less in reality once you account for the requisite Indian election tampering and fraud.

What a resounding public mandate.

CM

LMAO! You can't read can you. I asked regarding his statement that you lot are attributing to him.

BanTaleban

What exactly is the argument here? The guy contested in the election and lost miserably. There have been no reports of serious fraud in the elections. So what's so difficult to accept the natural result which is the people do not consider him fit to represent them.

Has it become so difficult for Pakistanis to understand how normal democracy and elections work?

janab-e-ali

The main issue is the absurd idea put forward by you and your compatriots that the defeat of one unpopular pseudo-separatist somehow indicates a lack of popular support for the independence movement. Like I said...grasping at straws.

Thats what Indians always claim...even back in the 90's when soldiers routinely rounded up villagers at gunpoint and dragged them to the polls.

I'm Kashmiri, not Pakistani.

And the pathetic charade I've observed first hand in Kashmir all too many times does not qualify as "normal democracy and elections" by any stretch of the imagination.

aam bandha

Even if sajjad Lone comes and tells you personally .... you will still not believe it ..... but since you have asked .... which "specific" statement are you refering to !!!!!

BanTaleban

^ ofcourse once the guy is defeated you start discrediting him as pseudo separatist. if he had won you'd running around celebrating that as proof of what people there want.

You cannot show reports of fraud yet somehow you want us to believe your word that the lection was rigged. sheer desperation it seems to me to be.

Congratulations on being Kashmiri - glad to make your acquaintance. I have not witnessed the charades you say you have but everything I've read about this recent election and the one before indicates they were clean.

Are you in J&K or POK?

aam bandha

Till some time back Sajjad Lone used to be the blue eyed boy of the sepratist movement .... and now he is a "political opportunist" .... strike one ... more to go

He was the only person in the election who stood on a platform representing the sepratist movement .... he was very clear about it ...... he could only get his "cousins" to vote for him & lost his security deposit .... people ok Kashmir know better.

Regards the voter turnout in Kashmir and fairness of elections .... read some more .... and you will be "enlightened"

janab-e-ali

Don't tell me you think you know what I would have done...nothing more that Indian imperialist arrogance.

I could care less about politicians who have been hinting at settling for autonomy for years, who just just a few months ago were swearing on the Quran that they had nothing to with candidates running in the state assembly elections, and then turn around and run themselves. In any case, your desperate attempt to grasp at straws has left you unable to see the forest for the trees; you focus on the defeat of one politician in an election that 70% of Kashmiris rejected anyways.

Then, not surprisingly, you haven't read enough.

There were plenty of reports of forced voting in the state assembly elections, both in the Kashmiri media, and in international outlets like the Wall Street Journal, whose reporters witnessed firsthand police and paramilitary forces trying to round up villagers and force them to vote. Indian forces were also condemned by Reporters Without Borders and other NGO's for specifically threatening, detaining, and attacking journalists and photographers trying to cover those elections and the numerous protests that ensued.

Indian occupied Kashmir.

BanTaleban

^ No need to guess 'what you'd have done'. people like you simply twist their view of events and facts to suit their motives. Like the whole world, excluding some groups such as you, know it was a fairly conducted poll. If you are really in Indian Kashmir and still write this way, obviously you are a prejudiced separatist.

Anyway the thread is about Lone's performance and thankfully he lost big time. Hopefully the other separatists learn a good lesson instead of fooling themselves

janab-e-ali

Yes, yes...the Kashmiri media is wrong. The international media is wrong. The NGOs are wrong. And the Wall Street Journal is just a pulp rag trying to malign India.

If it didn't make it onto Zee TV News so it could be presented to the asses of the Indian masses between minute by minute overage of the Aishwariya-Abhishek wedding, it simply didn't happen.

Keep deluding youself.

BanTaleban

again, events and facts have clearly proved what I say is true so the delusion is obviously on your part. It is all in black and white.

Your guy contested the poll and lost deposit. And now all you chamchas go 'he is not really our guy'

janab-e-ali

Hurriyat leaders were asked about Sajjad Lone's candidature before the elections...they rejected it saying that he was a "non-issue" and all candidates participating in the election were "two faces of the same coin." The APHC universally called for a boycott, even in Lone's constituency...leading him to lash out against Geelani and the Mirwaiz in the days leading up to the elections. This is why even the monkeys in the Indian media have said that the APHC did it's utmost to ensure his defeat. Only in your mind was he ever the Hurriyat's candidate.

Like I said...you are delusional.

DD

BT

take your pig headedness elsewhere if you can't discuss in civil manner.

aam bandha

Wall street journal ...... Hope we are talking about the one in US of A ...

What do they say about the elections in Kashmir

Voters in Kashmir Defy Separatists' Election Boycott - WSJ.com

The higher turnout is the latest sign that separatists have lost public support in Kashmir, where militant attacks were once a daily occurrence. Now, Indian officials say as few as 600 armed Islamic insurgents remain in the state.

janab-e-ali

And when non-Indians are writing the articles with some degree of objectivity:

In the village of Samboora, residents said that Indian Army troops went from house to house on Saturday morning, rounding up families and taking them to a polling station. As a reporter drove into the village Saturday afternoon, an army vehicle with several soldiers stopped by the walled compound of Ghulam Mohammad, pulling the 59-year-old retiree onto the road. Seeing a foreign reporter, the soldiers jumped into their vehicle and quickly drove off. "They asked me why I'm not voting, and I said that's because I don't like any of the candidates," Mr. Mohammad said moments later. "They said, if I don't vote, I'll be sorry later."

In another south Kashmiri village, Koeil, a similar police effort to round up voters degenerated into clashes with stone-throwing youths. As a reporter arrived on the scene, dozens of police officers charged along the main street, firing tear-gas volleys. Many policemen also picked up rocks and hurled them into villagers' homes, breaking windows...Half an hour later, Indian forces in the village opened fire at the protesters, killing a 20-year-old student and seriously injuring three others, including a 14-year-old boy whose arm and intestines were pierced by high-velocity Kalashnikov bullets.


A New Tack in Kashmir - WSJ.com