1977 J&K Assembly elections were a watershed

EVEN though these are but UT elections to a limp Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, they have evoked reminiscences of the Assembly elections of 1977. Those elections, held under Governor’s rule, are often cited as a watershed. All shades in Kashmir’s political firmament had leaped eagerly into the fray.

Pro-independence Mirwaiz Farooq of the Awami Action Committee put up candidates but, like the Jamaat-e-Islami now, not under the party’s name. The pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami led by Ali Shah Geelani was a contender, as it had been in 1972, when it won five seats, and is contesting again today, in thin disguise. Former supporters of Sheikh Abdullah become antagonists and set up a branch of the Janata Party, the ruling party at the Centre. Among its leaders was Hameed Karra, nephew of Mohiuddin Karra — one of the Sheikh’s lieutenants in the 1940s and 1950s. Maulana Masoodi, another of the Sheikh’s former close associates and the Assembly Speaker in 1953, threw his considerable clout with his Gujjar community behind the Janata Party. Maulana Iftikhar Ansari, the leading Shia cleric, was a formidable opponent. The Sheikh’s party stood alone. Yet, his appeal, as always, was his promise to restore to the people their dignity. His son Farooq is heir to that promise.

The Janata Party pulled out all stops in its campaign. Among the leaders who descended on Kashmir were Home Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, Industries Minister George Fernandes, Minister for Works and Housing Sikander Bakht and Defence Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram, once a pillar of the Congress. Finally, on the eve of polling, then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, like the present PM, made a campaign visit.

The initial effort of the state administration was to ‘arrange’ the election, as had been the practice. As deputy commissioner, I was the returning officer for the district of Srinagar. Hameed Karra soon came calling to ask that I make appointments of the election staff in consultation with him. He was the secretary to the state unit of the Janata Party. When I stated clearly that any such step was illegal, he was surprised. I was a promising young Muslim officer, he averred, and it would break his heart to have to destroy my career. The morning after my meeting with Karra, my boss, the commissioner of Kashmir, called me to his office. Upon entry to his chamber, whom did I find but Karra! ‘What is the difficulty Karra sahib is facing?’ asked Commissioner Ghulam Mustafa Khan. I told him of Karra’s demand. But the commissioner’s response, uttered with endearment, was that I was an innocent person, that administering Poonch, where I had just conducted parliamentary elections, was another matter, and I should now recognise that the demands of Srinagar were different.

As the election approached, the strong support base of Sheikh Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) became increasingly manifest. He suffered a heart attack that confined him to his home, but that led to an upsurge of support, causing his opponents to claim that the reports on the Sheikh’s health were fake. The administration decided to attempt to cripple his election campaign. All deputy commissioners in Kashmir were given orders requiring that leading NC volunteers be arrested under the Preventive Detention Act, which permitted detention without trial. Up all night, I approved nine arrests, only to receive a call early next morning from Chief Secretary Pushkar Nath Kaul, asking why I had been so slow. He told me that the deputy commissioners of other districts had each issued 30 to 80 warrants in one night. When I protested that a deputy commissioner was expected to satisfy himself that the grounds for detention made a convincing case of a threat to public security, he suggested that time spent scrutinising grounds was time wasted.

Prime Minister Desai paid a visit on June 25, 1977. As we prepared for our meeting, I was told by the IG of the state police, Peer Ghulam Hassan Shah, that the PM would ask that we ensure his party’s victory and that we should comply, for this was a duty to the nation. I told him that in that event, I, inexperienced in this art, must be replaced. As it happened, our meeting with the PM witnessed an amiable chat. When asked by the chief secretary if he had any advice for the state’s administration on the elections, the PM’s response was simple: “One doesn’t know whom to trust in Kashmir.”

The state police, frustrated with my insistence on adhering to the law, launched a flurry of arrests of NC activists, particularly of its youth wing, under Section 107 of the CrPC. Then party president Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah, brother of the Sheikh’s son-in-law, visited my office to object formally to this repression. I explained that this was the way the police wished to display their national commitment and asked him whether this would hamper or, in fact, strengthen his campaign. At this, Shah allowed himself a grin.

On election day, as I raced about the city, responding to calls, allegations and threats, Farooq Abdullah called on the IG, ensconced in the police control room, to complain that the elections were a farce. When results began to be announced and it was clear that the NC would win, I drove around Srinagar with the IG. The city rejoiced. Our car was repeatedly stopped, our hands kissed, blessings showered, as is the Kashmiri’s wont.

The June 1977 elections were a milestone in the political evolution of the state. Because of the high public participation and the healthy slate of candidates across the state’s political leadership, some believe that these were the fairest elections ever held there. Others have gone even further to declare them the only real elections ever held in J&K. Are the 2024 elections a resonance of that?

After his father’s death in 1982, Farooq became the CM. Then PM Indira Gandhi expected a political alliance with him and strengthening of the Congress’ presence in the state. She was to be rudely disappointed. And so the elections of 1983 again saw a confrontation between the ruling party at the Centre, the Congress, and the state’s ruling NC. Although former prime ministers had visited the state to boost their parties’ election prospects, it was unprecedented for a serving PM to run a campaign for a state election, visiting every constituency to canvass support, as did Indira in 1983. But the Congress lost roundly, winning only one seat in the Kashmir valley, 23 in the Jammu region and one in Ladakh, while the NC got 38 of the 42 seats in the Kashmir division, eight in the Jammu division and one in Ladakh’s Kargil.

So, once more, J&K returns to a semblance of democracy, although not yet to the substance.