'My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.'
'My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.'
Iltija Mufti, 37, is contesting her first election from Srigufwara Bijbehara, Jammu and Kashmir.
She holds a master's degree in international relations from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and was the spokesperson for her mother Mehbooba Mufti when the former J&K chief minister was detained after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Iltija's mother and grandfather Mufti Mohammad Sayeed also won their first election from Bijbehara.
"I am entering politics now because there is a need for me to step up. The party is at its lowest. There was a mass exodus at the behest of the BJP. I am under immense pressure because there are expectations that I have to live up to."
"They are writing the party's obituary," she says in a phone interview while campaigning in her constituency which votes on September 18.
"But I am proud of the fact that whatever respect I earn will be on my own merit. No one can accuse me of having it served on a platter."
"The most powerful thing that I can offer is my voice," Iltija Mufti tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
Did you know you would enter politics sooner or later?
No. When my grandfather and mother were chief ministers, I never came in the front as I was not comfortable.
I came into public view only after my mother was detained. It was at a moment of crisis.
I have been raised in a political family. My mother was divorced and when she joined politics, she became an absentee mother and I lost the only parent I knew.
I understood the cost of politics and it is not the life I had imagined. But life is essentially what happens that you don't plan.
This is a moment of crisis and turbulence and I had to step up.
As the third generation politician, how would you respond to accusations of perpetuating dynastic politics?
In my family, Mufti Sahab [maternal grandfather] struggled for decades. He barely won a handful of elections. It was only after my mother stepped in that he could realise his dream of becoming chief minister.
The struggle I am undertaking now was taken by my mother and grandfather before me. None of us were anointed as heirs. We all had to earn it.
Whatever struggle my mother saw, I don't think you will see in other political families.
It is anybody's right to get into politics if they are politically astute. I am not eating up anyone's space. There is enough space for people to participate in politics in India.
We are a democracy, not a banana republic and if people have to reject me, let them make a choice. Leave that choice up to them.
As you make a poll debut, what is the politics that you want to pursue? What freshness are you going to bring to your politics?
I am not a marketing product like soap or dishwashing liquid! I am not a Surf Excel that I am going to market myself.
It is my political journey. Of course, the fruit does not fall far from the tree, so my basics are going to be inherited from Mufti Sahab and my mother who have always spoken about peace and dignity.
Delhi is trying to impose a pseudo development model which comes at a cost of our fundamental rights. The peace in J&K is a sullen kind of peace. It is the peace of a graveyard.
It is silence.
So, I am not going to pitch myself as a marketing product. It is very important to be human and talk about the larger political issue which is the resolution of the J&K issue, but it is also very important to bring up local issues.
Like?
The fact that a six months pregnant woman has to walk 3 km to fetch water is a burning issue for her rather than Article 370.
My politics is the resolution of the issue at large, but also to look at the local issues. I try to discern and ascertain what people need the most.
Last week I went to a tribal village where I met a girl in standard 11 who was very vocal. She said she was sitting at home because there were no schools nearby and she had to walk kilometres. She asked for a centre where she could learn some skills.
The biggest issue is that people feel disempowered. They feel their resources, identity, job, culture -- everything is under threat.
The biggest challenge for me is to give them the hope that I can protect them by going to the assembly and raising my voice.
The J&K assembly does not have powers it had earlier and what will really count is your voice.
In Kashmir, politics revolves around what you are going to be vocal about because the government in Delhi will get agitated if you speak about the ground reality.
The most powerful thing that I can offer is my voice.
Is the abrogation of Article 370 an issue at all? Or has it been pushed into the background by local issues that affect the people?
Of course not! If you look at our developmental indexes, they have all crashed.
The truth is that we were far ahead compared to BJP ruled states like MP and Gujarat in education, healthcare, economy, but all that has plummeted because of the abrogation of Article 370.
Our unemployment rate is skyrocketing at 36%.
There is growing inflation -- all this is linked to the abrogation of Article 370.
For us the restoration of Article 370 is imperative, but the People's Democratic Party has always spoken about the larger resolution of the J&K issue.
When I go into the villages I do speak about 370. It is important to make people understand that they are suffering because Article 370 has been abrogated. A sense of crippling despair has cropped up in the last 5 years because of the abrogation.
It is all tied up together.
But the reality is that Article 370 will not be reinstated.
That is the BJP's rhetoric. The BJP doesn't own the country; they are not going to be in power forever.
Our stance is that we will peacefully struggle for it. We talk about the restoration of J&K special status, but also the resolution of the bigger problem at hand.
The NC-Congress alliance appears to be in a lead position in this election, followed by the BJP. What challenge does it throw at you as a member of the PDP's founding family?
I would be lying if I said that I am entering politics when everything is fine. Nothing is normal in J&K. The party is at its lowest. There was a mass exodus from the party at the behest of the BJP.
I am happy that I am entering at a time where my mother cannot put a crown on my head and anoint me as an heir. I want to earn people's respect and credibility.
I am entering politics now because there is a need for me to step up. I am under immense pressure because there are expectations that I have to live up to. Every show I go into they talk about how the PDP is being written off -- they are writing the party's obituary.
But I am proud of the fact that whatever respect I earn will be on my own merit. No one can accuse me of having it served on a platter.
In Kashmir, the politics is such that it is extremely hard to be loved by the people. I only hope I am not misunderstood and accepted because love is too much to ask for a politician in Kashmir.
You cannot blame the people for this because they feel very disillusioned by politics, especially now.
Your mother is not fighting this election. She is the leader of the PDP, a former chief minister and the party's tallest leader, would not her candidature have bolstered the ranks?
My mother has a long political experience and this is her decision. She knows what she is doing.
She is more emotional while I am more rational. My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.
My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.
What is the top most issue that you are taking to the people?
Safety, security and basic facilities. Unfortunately, we are returning to the 1990s situation where men would be picked up by the police and not return home.
We are returning to the dark insurgency era. I want to tell people I am there to speak for them and at the same time I am going to fight for their safety, security and dignity.
What are some of the issues concerning Kashmiri women that you intend to highlight?
So many girls in the villages have to walk kilometres to reach a government school. I would like to focus on education, setting up skill centres, tuition centers. Many young girls want to join the administrative service in Kashmir.
I want to help them in every way possible and enlighten their burden.
What has the start of the campaign been like for you?
I started campaigning in the middle of last week. People have problems unique to their villages. For example, I was in a village where they told me there are no water pipes or bore wells. Pregnant women had to walk kilometres to get safe drinking water, and even that water was not safe because it was from a nala or a nearby stream.
There are villages without pucca roads.
In other villages people tell us that their boys are being picked up by the police on false charges. I met a woman with two infant children whose husband had been picked up under UAPA and was rotting in a jail for the last one-and-a-half years.
You feel bad because they don't have the basic fundamental essentials like clean drinking water, electricity.
There has been no assembly for the past 6 years, but what amazes me is that elected representatives have not been able to do these basic things.
This has been an eye-opening experience -- regardless of defeat or victory.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
