Forty years ago, when PM Indira Gandhi was at the helm of affairs in the Congress and also in the country as the Prime Minister, a dominant section of people in Kashmir valley considered the Congress as an alien and outside party that could threaten the state’s “autonomy”.
Those days there were mainly two parties in Kashmir; the National Conference and the Congress. There were fringe groups like the People’s Conference and the Jamaat-e-Islami, but they occupied just a negligible political space.
Gandhi was known for centralising all power. The National Conference, then headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah had started aggressively pursuing the idea of “federalism” as also greater autonomy to the state following the, now abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
The National Conference considered Indira as a threat to its special status, although the Congress ‘had’ always been clear and categorical about the “irreversible” nature of Article 370.
In 1983, the National Conference and the Congress fought a bitter political battle against each other. Farooq inherited the leadership mantle after the demise of his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, also known as Sher-i-Kashmir (lion of Kashmir) about a year ago.
Sheikh Abdullah was quite a popular leader at that time. About a million people participated in his funeral procession. Indira as the Prime Minister and the then President Giani Zail Singh also joined the funeral procession.
Farooq was riding the wave of the popularity of his father in the 1983 assembly elections. The Congress in Jammu and Kashmir was headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was very close to Indira. Mufti led an impressive fight for the Congress against the National Conference. It was not just a bitter but an ugly electoral fight.
During a public meeting in Iqbal Park in Srinagar, while Indira was speaking from the stage, some people alleged to be the National Conference workers lowered their trousers in an outrageously obscene gesture towards her. She was rightly infuriated.
When Farooq went to see her for a courtesy call, after winning the election and becoming the Chief Minister, she is believed to have taunted him by asking her staff to check whether he was wearing his “pyjamas”, a clear snub for the way the NC workers had made obscene gestures to her.
Farooq, after getting reelected as the Chief Minister, hosted a conclave of opposition Chief Ministers and leaders in Srinagar, which was attended by prominent non-Congress CMs like NT Rama Rao, Rama Kishen Hegde and others. This was a total affront to Indira and she took it personally.
Indira was feeling betrayed. His ‘hurt’ was quite deep, as Farooq, was trying to unite the non-Congress opposition against her and becoming a central figure in it. She had supported Sheikh Abdullah when in 1982, before his death, he had anointed Farooq as his successor and political heir apparent.
Apparently to avenge the “grave betrayal”, she later engineered a mass defection from the ruling National Conference of 13 legislators, gave them outside Congress support and installed Farooq’s brother-in-law, GM Shah aka ‘Gul Shah’ as the Chief Minister.
A turning point in J&K’s Political History
That was a turning point in Jammu and Kashmir’s political history. The National Conference was weakened. Farooq was getting desperate to become the Chief Minister. Eventually, he allied with the Congress in 1987, which not only proved to be “unnatural” but even fatal as well, as it created an “opposition vacuum” that was filled up by radicals, extremists and secessionists. The state, now the Union Territory, is still bearing its consequences.
While Rajeev Gandhi also observed a conciliatory policy towards the National Conference, unfortunately, he did not survive long. Moreover, Kashmir had already slipped into chaos and anarchy.
After about 35 years of chaos and anarchy due to terrorism, which has its roots in “Islamic separatism”, Kashmir has started moving back towards normalcy. National Conference no longer considers the Congress as an “enemy of Kashmiris”, which it used to describe in the 1980s.
The NC has already identified a “new enemy” in the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly after the abrogation of Article 370. The National Conference had joined the Vajpayee-led BJP/NDA government in 1998 in a post-poll alliance, which broke up in 2004.
Rahul not walking in Indira’s footsteps
Rahul Gandhi, in stark contrast to his grandmother, has adopted a completely conciliatory approach towards the National Conference. Although he has now been silent about the abrogation of Article 370, his party’s stand has been similar to that of the National Conference.
It is an irony that the National Conference has been projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the same manner to the people of Kashmir, as it once did with Ms Indira Gandhi.
Indira never tolerated any gesture or posturing, no matter how subtle it might have been, that would challenge or question the country’s integrity or the fact that Kashmir was an integral part of India. Like Modi, she had “zero tolerance” for any such idea and she sacrificed her life towards that end.
As Rahul has been presenting himself as the greatest challenger to Prime Minister Modi, he is finding much acceptability among the National Conference workers and maybe a considerable number of Kashmiris also. His recent public meeting in Kashmir drew a massive crowd, where he spoke against Prime Minister Modi in his characteristic “anti-Modi rhetoric”.
While the National Conference-Congress alliance does have an edge over the Bharatiya Janata Party, it is still too early to predict who will be forming the government in Jammu and Kashmir. One thing however is sure, Rahul, unlike his grandmother is liked very much in Kashmir, more because of his aggressive anti-Modi posturing than for any other reason.
In the process, people are even prepared to overlook his silence on the abrogation of Article 370 during the election campaign. While he has “guaranteed” restoration of the statehood, he has maintained a complete silence about Article 370, which his alliance partner, the National Conference has promised to restore.
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