POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Er Rashid emerging as Gani Lone’s successor in mainstream politics

PC founder’s legacy falls into the lap of a nondescript separatist columnist and Govt official

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Apr 2: “Tum char sau bees hau (You are a cheat)”, Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah grumbled on enfant terrible Abdul Gani Lone on the floor of Legislative Assembly in 1978. Lone quipped back: “Tum aath sau chalees hau (But, you are a cheat of the cheats)”. That was how the Lion of Kashmir and the Lion of Kupwara roared on each other and, in the process, a frail political activist from a penurious rural background emerged as a “threat” for the all-imposing ‘Twinkling Star of Asia’. Earlier, Lone had proved his mettle with his resignation as a Minister in Syed Mir Qasim’s Congress government. Later, he was among the two-odd candidates of then ruling Janata Party who could defeat NC in Kashmir valley in the Assembly elections of 1977. In 1979, Sheikh created a separate revenue district for Kupwara--- alongwith Budgam and Pulwama in Central and South Kashmir, respectively---but Lone forced the government to raise offices of most of the district officers at his hometown of Handwara.

Days before his death in September 1982, Sheikh began the operation of creating a cub to undercut Lone in Handwara. A fresh law graduate from Pune, Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan was catapulted into the fray so forcefully that Lone fought pitched battles but failed to become MLA of Handwara until his end. He floated his own Peoples Conference (PC). In 1983, he polled 17,565 votes against Ramzan’s 17,575. He was still returned impressively from the adjoining parallel constituency of Karnah. It is perhaps because of that ‘battle of the giants’ that Handwara is still a history. Apparently a threat for many of his separatist colleagues in Hurriyat Conference, Lone was assassinated on Iddgah Grounds on the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq on May 21, 2002.

Lone’s mainstream proxy, Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi, became the beneficiary of PC’s boycott to the elections as, in 2002, he created the history of Ramzan’s first defeat at the hustings. Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed rewarded Sofi by inducting him as a Minister in his Cabinet and allocating him once Ramzan’s high profile Forest portfolio. Even as Ramzan staged a spectacular comeback and polled the highest number of votes (28,000) among all 2000-odd candidates in Kashmir in the Assembly elections of 2008, electors in the adjoining Langet constituency paid their tributes to Lone by returning one of his ordinary colleagues. A nondescript separatist columnist, who worked as an engineer with J&K Projects Construction Corporation, wore Lone’s mantle in Assembly. Unlike the unassuming Sofi, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid began doing what his mentor had done decades ago.

Much like Lone, he has been also wavering on postures, making it difficult to understand whether he was NC’s “associate member” or a stanch detractor of Omar Abdullah’s government. Even while defending Omar and making frontal attacks on Mufti’s government, Er Rashid has been on the forefront of the agitation demanding ban on inter-district recruitment in government services. “I have been used” (by NC-led government in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections of 2009) and I am simply asking for the price. I have done it all for the people of my constituency and Kupwara district”, MLA Langet is reported to have said in his last ditch effort of getting his demand conceded.

Rashid seems to have inherited even the suspicion Lone lived with for decades. A many of the coalition leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand---who feels that the ban could lead to “Amarth Sangharsh-like agitation” among the Scheduled Castes---suspect that the all-party agitation was only NC’s gameplan. Interestingly, Rashid has been joined by three of NC’s Kupwara-based MLAs, namely Chowdhary Ramzan, Mir saifullah and Kafeel-ur-Rehman, besides PDP’s lonely Abdul Haq Khan.

In all three of the Assembly sessions so far, Rashid has attained the distinction of attracting maximum number of Speaker’s warnings, reprimands and marshal actions. The way Lone once invited Taliban to Kashmir, in most of his speeches Rashid has sought release of the hardliner militant ideologue Dr Qasim from jail. This Jamiatul Mujahideen top man has been serving a life term in Srinagar Central Jail for having ordered human rights activist Hridhay Nath Wanchoo’s murder in 1992. He also happens to be the husband of Dukhtaraan-e-Millat Chairperson, Asiya Andrabi. Rashid has even eclipsed PDP in its refrain of “maslaa Kashmir” (solve the political problem of Kashmir). He has gone a step farther by demanding Jammu’s separation from Kashmir.

Lone’s heir apparent in mainstream politics, Rashid has had luck on his side. While his colleague of years and fiery mentor, Sajjad Lone, blew hot and hold with regard to the option of directly participating in the elections in 2008, Rashid took the dangerous decision. He exploited a menacing anti-incumbency factor against the NC stalwart Sharief-ud-din Shariq and PDP leader Mohammad Sultan Panditpuri and trounced both in a multi-cornered contest in Langet.

As Gani Lone’s advocate daughter, Shabnam, lost to NC’s Mir Saifullah in Kupwara segment, Rashid became the undisputed custodian of Lone’s legacy in the mainstream politics. That provoked the real heir apparent, Sajjad Lone, to jump into the fray of Lok Sabha elections next spring but it proved to be too late. Even in his strongest segments of Handwara and Kupwara, Sajjad suffered a dressing down at the hands of NC’s Ramzan and Saifullah who maintained impressive lead for Shariq. Sajjad discovered that he had lost the bus to his proxy, Sofi, in 2002 and Rashid had already laid his hands on the achievable knighthood. This left Abdul Gani Lone’s elder son, Bilal Lone, to be his undisputed successor in separatist politics.

While Lone’s progeny has been, perhaps unsuccessfully, struggling for space in Kashmir’s politics, a number of his old trusted colleagues and PC founders have also landed in the present Assembly. Besides Rashid, they include Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Nizam-ud-din Bhat , Abdul Haq Khan (now all in PDP) and Mohammad Akbar Lone, now Speaker and NC’s MLA from Sumbal Sonawari.

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