J&K polls: BJP's female contestant Neelam Gash

Reserving 3 seats for the Pandiths and giving mandate to women candidates is viewed as a changing discourse in the valley by the political commentators. The Hans India Valley Correspondent Shahid Andrabi in an exclusive interview with a BJP female contestant Neelam Gash who is trying her luck from the Zadibal assembly segment of Srinagar, talks about her take on the decision of joining BJP.

‘‘We will bestow a new dawn to the people of state; we will run an expectation-centered system where youth get empowered, where women don’t suffer longer, where downtrodden people don’t face the burnt, where jobs come in bulk, where justice is delivered on time, where the sentiments of people are respected, where equality follows, where family politics finds no space’’ Neelam Gash.

The Hans India: - Welcome Madam

Neelam Gash: - Thank You, Sir

THI: - Your Background Please?

NG: - I am an engineer by profession. Before joining politics, I was associated with an

NGO Madhava. I have no family political background, neither I am personally political.

THI: - Why Politics and Why BJP?

NG: - I have grown up in a conflict ridden state, I have seen the toughest times of history and I have been a mute spectator of all what was or what is happening in and around me. I saw people suffering in a place where none other God is to take care.

Kashmir has a cruel history where family politics rules over the state and there is nobody to ask or even intervene into the system. I as human being faced the challenges i feel the challenges. My decision of joining BJP is purely personal. I am influenced by the party and the change that party wants to bring in into the state.

I have an urge to serve the people in a system or in that political circle where family Raaj is nowhere found where people are the part of decision making and where the downtrodden section of the society is able to share the dividends of development. I am influenced by the ideology of the party and by the leadership that the party is having.

THI: - People of the valley distinguish BJP from other political parties on the bases of ideology. Do you feel that difference of any other difference?

NG: -No political party is the valley has ever been able to bring youth at the forefront of system. You have the prime minister of the country who emerged from a very low background so you can anticipate the kind of scheme that the party follows in allowing the entry of common people into the system.

Family politics surfaced in the leadership arena of those political parties who ruled the state of Jammu and Kashmir till date, which is nowhere found in BJP and that is the area where party shares its difference with the other political parties. Youth have been kept out of the system; VVIP’s make it to the higher levels of decision making, where do common masses find the say in system? Obviously nowhere, BJP is carrying that policy where from a common person to the white collared people, everybody has a right to say and right to do whatever is

THI: - What does “development” mean for you?

NG: - Development has a vast meaning in front of me. Development which is not only Bijli, Sadak and Pani oriented but that keeps in its ambit the empowerment of youth and women and the growth of job avenues for unemployed people. History is the witness of the fact that how the youth of the valley suffered and how different regimes of the government placed fewer opportunities for them to grow and flourish.

I want the growing network of industries in the state. I don’t want my highly educated youth to wander for class 4th jobs, I want the mushrooming of industries here so that nobody suffers and no talent gets buried into a class 4th job. Our handicraft industry is dying a natural death because of which our artisans are suffering I want this industry to grow and take into its scheme the unemployed youth.

THI: - From last few months BJP has been raising the issue of revoking article 370 in spite of the fact that party is aware of the consequences that it may have on the people of Kashmir, then why BJP is raking such issues?

NG: - BJP is purely Peoples party and we respect the sentiments of people. There is no point of revoking article 370. We want a debate on 370, we want intellectuals to share their views and we welcome everyone to come on table for the debate. We will never take anti people decision; our party believes in people friendly strategies.

THI: - Your Mission?

NG: - I will channelize all the efforts so that this paradise on earth looks real paradise in real sense. People of the valley have been betrayed by previous governments and they have stopped hoping anything from system, I want a life of those hopes again, I want people to dream of a better tomorrow.

The days of misery are no longer; we have succeeded in forming the government in center. We will bestow a new dawn to the people of state; we will run an expectation-centered system where youth get empowered, where women don’t suffer longer, where downtrodden people don’t face the burnt, where jobs come in bulk, where justice is delivered on time, where the sentiments of people are respected, where equality follows, where family politics finds no space.

THI: - It was a time in state when we would see no lotus flags in valley and today the same Kashmiri people and the same valley open the gates for party. Is it because of BJP or Modi?

NG: - People of the valley have passed through different situations and no government was ever able to change their destiny. They are willing for a change and that change is seen on the streets of Kashmir. The volume of BJP slogans is the result of that changing mind set up which people are adopting. I think it is both BJP and Narendra

Modi which is responsible for the creation of lotus wave in Kashmir. People have been deceived in earlier attempts by all regimes of the government and today they are ample strong to judge between the good and bad.