The Controversial 1987 Kashmir Elections (image: x.com/ECISVEEP)
As Jammu and Kashmir went to polls after a decade, during the campaigns political parties gave weightage more on the 1987 elections. The 1987 Assembly elections marked a significant shift in the course of the erstwhile state’s history – a landmark moment changed Kashmir’s political and electoral destiny.
In 1986, Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Jagmohan dismissed the Ghulam Mohammad Shah-led Awami National Conference government and imparted governor’s rule. Jagmohan’s action was viewed as diminishing Muslim-majority character of the valley.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah reached an agreement under “Rajiv-Farooq Accord” and Abdullah formed the government in November with the support of Congress. But the outrage within four month resulted in the fall of government and announcement of 1987 elections.
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When the Assembly elections were announced, the Muslim United Front (MUF) decided to join the contest. The MUF is a conglomeration of Islamic parties, where the biggest in the grouping was the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu Kashmir (JIJK). They chose ‘pen and inkpot’ as their election symbol, and the manifesto stressed the resolution of the Kashmir dispute as per the Simla agreement. Mohammad Yousuf Shah, a religious preacher, was one of MUF’s candidates.
On March 23, elections were held, and for the first time, Jammu and Kashmir saw an impeccable voter turnout, touching 80%. The vote percentage and discernable wave of support shown to MUF candidates created an assumption that they would perform well in the polls, apparently alarming the Congress government in Delhi and its alliance partner NC in Kashmir.
The election results were halted for many days, where reports of electoral manipulation and coercive methods were heard from various parts of the Valley. When results announced, the NC- Congress alliance secured victory, where former garnered all 26 seats and latter secured 40 of the total 46 seats it contested. But in the case of MUF, among the 44 seats it contested only four candidates, Saeed Ahmad Shah (brother of separatist leader Shabir Shah), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Razaq, and Ghilam Nabi Sumji won.
As per the popular presumption, the elections were reportedly rigged so that NC-Congress would continue to remain in power and the central government would not lose control over state politics. However, no proper inquiries were conducted into the allegations of rigging.
When the NC-Congress came to power, they began to imprison rival candidates and their supporters and allegedly tortured them up. Among the tortured include Mohammad Yousuf Shah, and his associates like Yasin Malik.
Soon after the release, Malik moved to Pakistan and later emerged as the chief of the militant organisation Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Similarly, Shah moved to Pakistan, adopted the name ‘Syed Salahudin’, and rose to helm the Hizbul Mujahideen, a terrorist outfit.
The 1987 election is significant because it resulted in the emergence of militancy in the valley that got amplified in the years to follow. Even after decades, the election cast shadows over Kashmir and on the NC. The opponents of the Abdullah-headed party repeatedly bring up the topic to attack the former and blames them for terrorism in Kashmir.
Perceived widely as rigging, the betrayal in the polls led many youths to give up faith in the democratic process and to indulge in taking up arms.
The current Assembly polls witnessed political parties resurfacing controversial elections with much tenacity and vigour.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti attacked the NC-Congress alliance by bringing references to 1987 rigging. “After 1987, we know what happened. Kashmir became a place for graveyards, widows and fathers had to shoulder coffins of their sons. It was the result of the NC and Congress alliance and their rigging of elections,” ETV Bharat quotes, as Mufti is saying. She also stated that it was NC that made elections “haram” for JIJK.
People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone went a step further and said in the party poll manifesto that they would set up a judicial commission to probe into the rigging of the 1987 elections. He has consistently brought up the 1987 election earlier as well.
The Apni Party supremo Altaf Bukhari blamed the NC and Congress for causing a prolonged phase of violence in Jammu and Kashmir by rigging assembly elections in 1987.
“As a result of extensive rigging in the assembly elections in 1987, these parties paved the way for violence in Jammu and Kashmir. This prolonged phase of violence eventually led to deaths and destruction in the region. These parties and their leaders are responsible for deaths and bloodshed,” the Outlook quotes, as Bukhari is saying.
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Meanwhile, NC President Dr. Farooq Abdullah dismissed that alleged rigging in the 1987 elections prompted militancy in Jammu & Kashmir. “Militancy did not start due to NC, and even today there are militants. Are they because of us?” he said while talking to the media.
NC Vice President Omar Abdullah said that he has no problem talking about 1987, but the PDP needs to give an answer for 1990 and onwards and “all the massacres that Mufti Sayeed engineered.”
How will the focus on the 1987 election instead of the abrogation of Article 370 worked in the assembly polls?, the results will tell.
