Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi may have effectively raised the bar in rest of the country for selecting candidates with integrity to contest parliamentary and assembly elections, but it is otherwise in Jammu and Kashmir.
The party's candidates in the ongoing assembly polls in the state include alleged scamsters, militants turned counter-insurgents, one former minister accused in a sex scandal, another in molestation, and another senior leader recently caught in a phone-tape, promising job to a young woman in return of sex. In a rare case on November 8, a Delhi court sentenced senior PDP leader Mohd Dilawar Mir for three years and imposed a fine of Rs 3 crore, in a case related to wrongful release of Rs 30 lakh, putting his political career in jeopardy. But in this troubled state a dozens of politicians, involved in different cases ranging from scams to molestations and embezzlements, continue to escape the noose of law.
Former Congress state unit president and minister Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, contesting from South Kashmir Kukernag constituency, has an FIR registered against him for helping his foster son copying in examination. On January 5, 2014, a formal case was registered against him and his son Imam Souban for using fraudulent means to pass his class 10 board exams in 2009, when the minister was heading education department. When chief minister Omar Abdullah had attempted to remove him, Congress resisted and he continued to keep him the council of ministers, but was stripped of education portfolio. Earlier an MLA, now also Congress candidate Shoaib Lone, on the floor of House had alleged that Peerzada took Rs 40,000 as bribe from him to clear his sister's file. Even back in 2005, J&K Accountability Commission, a counterpart of Lokpal, had charged him with misappropriation of government funds for electrification of panchayat ghars. The case hangs in balance as government has shown no spine to engage lawyers to vacate a stay granted by the gigh Court.
Another Congress stalwart and minister contesting from South Kashmir seat of Dooru Ghulam Ahmad Mir was prime accused in infamous 2005 sex scandal. The alleged kingpin Sabeena had named him along with few other high-level officials to whom she allegedly supplied girls. He was booked under Section 5 of the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act and arrested by CBI in 2006. The case was shifted to Chandigarh in 2006, where he was acquitted. The court gave him benefit of doubt in 2012, as witnesses didn't turn up in the court hundreds of miles away. Congress candidate from Rajuri Shabir Ahmed Khan, also a former minister, was booked last year for allegedly molesting a woman doctor in his office. The minster went into hiding till he was able to arrange an interim bail for himself from J&K high court.
The party was further embarrassed last week, when its state vice-president and candidate from Rafiabad in North Kashmir, Abdul Gani Vakil, was caught in a phone tape conversation allegedly asking a girl to visit his place as soon as possible for sex. The girl desperate for the job agrees to come to him in the first week of November.
Till this date, the state accountability commission is probing corruption charges against eight politicians, most of them from Congress. These include another senior Congress leaders Taj Mohi-ud-Din, candidate from Uri, Abdul Majeed Wani contesting Doda, seat, its former ministers Mangat Ram Sharma and Gulchain Singh Charak, who incidently till now was member of Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Besides, those involved in scams, the party has also fielded two dreaded faces of counter-insurgency Usman Majeed from Bandipora and Imtiyaz Parrey, son of Kashmir's most famous counter-insurgent, Kuka Parrey from Sonawari. Kuka Parrey in mid-1990s founded the state-backed militia, Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon. He and his lieutenant Usman are believed to have killed dozens of militants and their sympathisers and have been accused of many rights abuses.
Jammu and Kashmir state unit chief Prof Saifudin Soz, when contacted, defended issuing mandate to such scam-tainted politicians. "Where are the candidates? Why don't you people join politics and the party? We cannot get people from heavens to be fielded in elections. We have to mix winnability as well as availability," he told dna on phone. Prof Soz said other parties contesting polls in their ranks have much worst tainted people in comparison to Congress.
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