revisiting-history-3-families-that-controlled-j-k-s-destiny

Like in most of the states across the country, Jammu and Kashmir (now a union territory) has also been dominated by a few families, that are refusing to let loose their grip over political power and influence. These families have moved into third and fourth generations now.

 

Kashmir, as Jammu and Kashmir, is mostly identified as given the political dominance Kashmir region exercised over the entire state, has its uniqueness as well. The abrogation of Article 370 that granted it special status has also not taken away that “uniqueness”.

 

While ‘Abdullahs’ have remained the most dominant family here, the Gandhis have not held any less influence and impact. In fact, in the end, it was the Gandhi family whose will prevailed eventually whenever there was a difference/confrontation between the two families, which had enjoyed a love-hate relationship for generations.

 

‘Muftis’ were the late entrants. The family did hold some influence for a while, but after the demise of its founder patriarch Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, its influence also waned. But the family continues to remain politically active and does play its role in one way or the other, maybe marginal only.

 

With the assembly elections announced, the Gandhis (the Congress) and the Abdullahs (the National Conference) have already announced an alliance. The Muftis (the People’s Democratic Party) has offered to “cooperate and support” the alliance, of course with certain conditions.

 

While the Congress, right now is the central force, both the National Conference as well as the People’s Democratic Party have had also an alliance with the Bhartiya Janata Party at one time or the other.

 

The three ‘families’ did come together during the 2024 General Elections as part of the INDIA bloc, which was a unique political “event” in Kashmir’s history, but the PDP was left out of the alliance at the time of elections. Abdullahs and Muftis coming together is an unimaginable thing in Kashmir.

Where it all began

 

Starting from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, the Gandhis and the Abdullahs enjoyed a good relationship at the time of the Independence of the Country. After Jammu and Kashmir acceded with India, and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the “founder” of the Abdullah dynasty/family became the Prime Minister (Jammu and Kashmir was accorded special status and the Chief Minister there was called as the ‘Prime Minister’) the cordial relationship did not last much long, not beyond 1953. 

 

Although initially, Sheikh Abdullah, also popularly known as ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’ (Lion of Kashmir) had an important role in JK’s accession with India, he later started toying with the idea of an “independent Kashmir”. He was sacked on August 8, 1953, and imprisoned under the “Kashmir Conspiracy” case. That was the ‘tipping point’ in the relationship between the Abdullahs and Gandhis/Nehrus. This bitterness refused to go away even after the ‘Indira-Sheikh Accord’ of 1975.

 

The bitterness reached its pinnacle when Ms Indira Gandhi dismissed Farooq Abdullah’s elected government after engineering a defection and installing his (Farooq’s) brother-in-law (sister’s husband) Ghulam Ahmad Shah as the Chief Minister with outside support from the Congress. 

 

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was the state Congress president at that time had a prominent role in the dismissal of the Farooq government. He had grown quite close to Ms Gandhi with whom he shared the ‘anti-Farooq’ sentiment. It was not merely a political hostility, but personal as well. Ms Gandhi had felt personally hurt and humiliated after some National Conference activists made outrageously and extremely obscene gestures towards her by taking off their trousers during a public rally in Srinagar. She was so hurt that when Farooq after becoming the Chief Minister in the 1983 elections, went to pay a courtesy call to the Prime Minister, she asked her staff tauntingly to check “whether he was wearing his trousers”.

After Indira’s demise

 

After Rajiv Gandhi took over the reins of the party and the government in the aftermath of the assassination of Ms Gandhi in 1984, he adopted a policy of “reconciliation and rapprochement” with all the political rivals and dissidents. He already had a “personal” relationship with Farooq. With the assistance of Rajesh Pilot, Rajiv forged an alliance with Farooq, which proved to be the undoing of the state. 

As the opposition space was left out for the radicals like the Jamaat-e-Islami. What happened subsequently is history.

 

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who did not see eye to eye with Farooq and the National Conference, was sidelined. He was inducted as union tourism minister in Rajiv’s government.

 

Feeling sidelined, he eventually joined hands with VP Singh and joined the Janata Dal. He was elected in the 1989 General Elections to parliament from Muzaffarnagar and was appointed Union Home Minister.

 

Immediately after taking over as the Home Minister, his daughter Rubiya Sayeed, who was working as a doctor in a Srinagar hospital, was kidnapped while travelling in a public transport vehicle without any security. 

 

This was quite strange and surprising that the Union Home Minister’s daughter was travelling in public transport without any security and that too when Kashmir was already on the boil and militancy had started picking up.

 

Her release was secured only after the government of India agreed to release five jailed militants in exchange. Farooq Abdullah was the Chief Minister at that time. He put up a strong resistance against releasing the militants. He was confident that the militants wouldn’t harm Rubiya and, if by any chance they did, they would lose all public support and sympathy. His strong objections to release militants were overruled and they (the militants) were released. That was a turning point in Kashmir’s history, as the militants got emboldened and the separatist movement spread far and wide at a rapid pace. 

 

The first major decision Mufti took after becoming the Union home Minister was to appoint Jagmohan as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Jagmohan was the bête noir of Farooq as it was he who had dismissed his government at the behest of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Farooq resigned in protest and the state came under the Governor’s Rule for the first six months and subsequently under the President’s Rule till 1996, when the assembly elections were held again. 

 

Farooq again became the Chief Minister, although the “elections” saw quite a negligible participation of people in Kashmir. 

 

In the meanwhile, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had returned to the Congress for a brief while. Rajiv was no longer on the scene as he had been killed in a suicide bomb attack in 1991. The Gandhi family had been completely sidelined and was living a life of “political wilderness”.

 

Mufti again resigned from the Congress and formed the People’s Democratic Party, which, as is widely believed, was patronized by the Vajpayee regime at the centre and enjoyed the tacit support of secessionist and separatist elements including the Jamaat-e-Islami.

J&K after 2000

 

In the assembly elections in 2002 (in JK assembly elections before the abrogation of Article 370 were held every six years instead of five), it was a hung house. Mufti’s newly formed PDP made dent in the National Conference stronghold of Kashmir. Although it won only a small number of seats, it formed a post-poll alliance with Congress with an understanding of keeping the Chief Ministership for half the term, while handing over the charge to Congress after three years.

 

Farooq’s National Conference in the meanwhile had joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance headed by Vajpayee. Omar Abdullah, who was an MP from Srinagar, was appointed as union minister of state in the Vajpayee government. However, they parted ways before the 2004 General Elections when the National Conference joined the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and this time Farooq himself became a union minister. 

 

Mufti after remaining Chief Minister for three years, was forced to make way for the Congress in 2005, which was now in power at the centre and veteran Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad headed the Congress-PDP coalition. By the time the next elections became due in 2008, this coalition also fell apart. 

 

It was again a hung house in 2008 and the National Conference formed a post-poll alliance with the Congress. Omar Abdullah became the Chief Minister while Congress was given the post of Deputy Chief Minister. The alliance lasted a full term till 2014, but the two parties fought the election separately.

PDP’s resurgence and decline

 

In 2014, it was again a hung house with the PDP emerging as the single largest party. Congress shrunk to insignificant numbers not sufficient enough to facilitate a government forming coalition. The PDP, despite its ideological hostility with the BJP, took no time to strike an alliance with the saffron party. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed again became the Chief Minister for the second term, this time with the support of the BJP, which got the Deputy Chief Minister’s post.

 

However, after his demise, the coalition could not last long although his daughter Mehbooba Mufti was given a chance by the BJP to become the Chief Minister. They ended up as bitter, rather hostile opponents. The government fell in 2018 and since then the state/UT has been under President’s rule. The state/UT is now going to the polls after ten years.

5th August 2019, when it all changed

 

On August 5, 2019, Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was repealed. This brought the traditional and fierce rivals, the National Conference and the PDP, along with other Kashmir-based parties, together to oppose it. They formed the Gupkar Declaration Alliance, named after the ‘Gupkar Road’ locality where Farooq lived and where the declaration was made against the abrogation of Article 370. The ‘Gupkar Alliance’ did not survive much long, even though the abrogation of Article 370 has become an irreversible historical fact.

 

As the election process for the union territory’s assembly has already started, the three families have again come into focus; the Abdullahs, the Gandhis and the Muftis. The Abdullahs and Gandhis have clinched the deal already, while the Muftis have been left out.

 

Interestingly it is the third/fourth generation of the three families, which is calling the shots. For the Gandhis, it started with Pandit Nehru (about Kashmir, although Nehrus’ political history starts from Moti Lal Nehru), followed by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi.

 

The Abdullahs started with Sheikh Abdullah succeeded by his son Farooq Abdullah, who in turn was succeeded by his son Omar Abdullah.

 

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was succeeded by his daughter Mehbooba Mufti who has now passed on the baton to her daughter Iltija Mufti, who has started cutting her teeth in politics and will be contesting her maiden election.

 

It is impossible to imagine Kashmir politics without these three political families. Interestingly, for them, the main cohesive force to stay together, is the strong and formidable opponent, the BJP, which is posing a tough challenge to them in JK also. 

 

The 2024 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will not only be different for multiple factors, they will set an entirely new paradigm of politics in the union territory.