For CPI-M's Tarigami, Decades Of Effort In Kulgam Pays Off Again

In the green of south Kashmir’s Kulgam, it is red that has dominated the past five Assembly elections.

Kulgam is that place in Kashmir where Marx and God co-exist; where Kashmir’s lone communist leader Mohammad Yusuf Rather aka MY Tarigami has carved out his political niche. Having won once again as the CPI(M) candidate from the constituency in the current Assembly election, Tarigami has reaffirmed himself as one of the top political voices from Valley.

On The Campaign Trail With Tarigami

Tarigami’s campaign in this election was strategic. On the day Outlook was with him, he had chosen to visit a cluster of villages, some of which were close to him personally. He had chosen Yaripora, where he did his schooling, and he had also chosen Hum village, where two of his workers—two teachers— were killed by gunmen during the 90s.

He was also in Pandithpora, where he has a family relation, and in Madibugh, Zeban, Mathipora, and Kader villages.

All along the way he was showered with candies and flowers. At some places, Tarigami’s supporters insisted on him having a cup of tea and snacks. Some have even prepared food for their “beloved leader”.

The vehicle ahead of Tarigami’s car blared: ‘Haq ka hami, Tarigami...Sheroon ka sher hai humara leader’. Tarigami’s cavalcade took frequent halts along the route, where he addressed people.

Some decades back, it was not like this. It is Tarigami who made CPI-M acceptable to the masses in Kulgam. While the constituency has a decent base of National Conference and PDP voters as well, the main contest this time was between Tarigami and Jamaat-e-Islami backed candidate Sayar Ahmed Reshi from Khahrote village.

Tarigami's rise in Kulgam

Back in the 1960s, the idea of communism enticed a young Tarigami, who comes from a family of peasants in Kulgam village. Kulgam then was considered a Jamaat-e-Islami(JeI) bastion but also had a significant number of ardent supporters of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s National Conference.

The young Tarigami was fascinated by the speeches of Abdul Kabir Wani from the ‘Democratic National Conference’, a communist group which broke away from National Conference in 1957 and later became Democratic Conference with Ram Piara Saraf as its General Secretary. The party later aligned itself with Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). Along with his uncle, Tarigami would make it a point to attend Wani’s gatherings at his village Tarigam.

Leftist ideology has always had a presence in Kashmir politics. “Progressive thinkers” or “leftists” in the National Conference are credited with chalking out the secular and democratic credentials of the party in 1947. It is said that some of the “leftists” even used to confront NC founder ‘Lion of Kashmir’ Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. 

Sheikh Abdullah closely associated with communists such as Baba Bedi and Freda Bedi (the parents of the film star Kabir Bedi), revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Alys Faiz, former J&K chief ministers Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and GM Sadiq, Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarra (father of current Congress chief Tariq H Karra) and Mahmooda Ali Shah (former popular principal at Government College for Women on MA Road in Srinagar). The leftists ideology in Kashmir was not only amongst intellectuals but also amongst the peasantry, who desired above all else, land reform.

In 1944, the NC adopted the ‘Naya Kashmir’ manifesto, which is said to have been written by Baba Bedi. ‘Naya Kashmir’ manifesto called for the abolition of the landlord system, extensive land reform, and ownership of key industries by the Democratic State of Jammu and Kashmir. The communist influence on Sheikh Abdullah led to the creation of a militia in 1947 which is credited with having fought against the Dogra monarch Maharaja Hari Singh’s army.

It is from this background that Tarigami emerges.

Amid the intensive election campaigning , Rather, now Tarigami to his supporters, turns emotional while recalling his past.

“These villages, where you see people welcoming me with garlands now, earlier used to loath me. I have toiled to get here for my socialistic principles. In my eyes it doesn’t matter whether you are a Muslim or Hindu, our issues remain same,” says Tarigami.

It is in college that Tarigami’s “socialist fight” began in a real sense. If one day he was leading protests at Degree College Khanabal over a bus fare hike, another day it would be over student fee hike or some other issue. College was all about protests for young Tarigami.

In 1967, Tarigami remembers leading a protest march along with his colleague Chaman Lal Kantroo from Anantnag to Khanabal against Israel-Palestine war. It was then that he came under the watch of the authorities for his activities. He is being watched even now.

Soon Tarigami’s first political task began in Kulgam, when he and his friends took up the cause of farmers fighting the forcible procurement of rice. J&K’s CM at the time was GM Sadiq – a former communist who broke with the party to join Congress earlier in 1958. Tarigami’s tryst with jail begins here.

Over the years, Tarigami would frequently be arrested by the government. He has spent time at several jails, including the dreaded ones enshrined in Kashmir’s history, such Sub-Jail Reasi, Red-16 and Papa II.

“I was jailed under criminal cases. PDA (preventive defence act) which was later converted to PSA (public safety act) was slapped on me several times,” says Tarigami.

Being a “jailbird”, Tarigami couldn’t complete his graduation, but he continued reading inside jail. “It couldn’t break my resolve to fight for commoners,” he says.

During Emergency in 1975, Tarigami wept his heart out in a jail when news about the death of his wife Zareefa reached him. 

In 1983, Tarigami decided to contest elections from Kulgam constituency. The decision was a big one considering his fight was against bigwigs such as NC’s Ghulam Nabi Dar and Abdul Razzaq Mir of JeI.

Dar emerged victorious in that  election. Tarigami contested again in 1987, and that time Mir won the seat.

Following allegations of rigging in those elections of 1987, Kashmir’s political landscape took a violent turn. Soon bombs and bullets began to rattle the Valley.

Social Ostracism

While making communism acceptable to the people of Kashmir’s Kulgam, Tarigami faced a backlash.

When he decided to marry a second time, he found it tough to get a cleric for his “nikah”. When Tarigami’s family got a new breed of cow—a jersey—at their home, it was ridiculed as “swine”. Funerals and marriages faced a social boycott. Tarigami and his supporters meant “la-deen” (atheist) for his opponents.

Tarigami tasted success in Assembly elections for the first time in 1996. However, he couldn’t celebrate it as just days before the announcement of the result, his father-in-law Mohammad Akbar Bhat was killed by gunmen. During campaigning that year, a grenade was hurled at Tarigami’s rally, leaving at least 10 of his supporters dead.  

During the tumultuous 90s, Tarigami faced wrath for holding the Tricolour in Kashmir. He was nearly killed in 1989 when gunmen suddenly appeared at his home in Kulgam. He gave them the slip by jumping off the second storey of the house. Later, he had to take refugee in Jammu.

His nephew Zahoor Ahmed Rather was kidnapped and tortured for days during 90s before Tarigami, through hectic negotiations, was able to secure his release from the gunmen.

Over the years, Tarigami faced several attacks. In 2005, there was a fidayeen attack on his Tulsibagh residence in Srinagar. The attack left the then J&K Education Minister Dr Ghulam Nabi Lone, two security personnel, and one civilian dead.

In 2006, Tarigami’s nephew Gulzar Ahmed Rather was killed by gunmen. The latest attack on Tarigami happened in 2016 when his residence at Kulgam was attacked.

A Turning Point

After years of freeze in Kashmir’s mainstream politics, when Assembly elections took place in 1996, the JeI stayed away. The decision, many believe, helped Tarigami politically as one of his main political rivals Mir(Bacchru) wasn’t in the fray.

Also in that 1996 election, Dr Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference announced an alliance with the CPI-M, under which the NC decided to support Tarigami, forcing their top leader Ghulam Nabi Dar to stay away from the contest in the constituency.

Elders at Kulgam town remember how during a rally near main bus stop, during those tumultuous days in Kashmir, Farooq took Tarigami’s hand in his and urged his supporters to vote for him.

“At that point CPI-M was a huge force at the national level. It had some 46 MPs. It was a decision by the party high command with the intention that CPI-M will support its resolution of autonomy inside the Parliament,” says NC leader Imran Nabi Dar, who is considered a formidable “political force” from the constituency but did not contest in this election owing to alliance between his party and the CPI-M.

A lecturer from Kulgam Degree College believes that without any strong competition, Tarigami thrived in the constituency. It was due to this reason he was able to win his election and subsequently emerged as a huge political leader on the map of Kashmir’s chequered history.

Another factor, according to a former agricultural officer from Kulgam, that helped Tarigami thrive in the constituency is the election boycotts announced bu sepatratists in the previous Assembly elections, which made parties like JeI to stay away.

However, Tarigami says JeI cadre in the constituency has been covertly voting for PDP, which came into being in 1999 and contested Assembly elections for the first time in 2002.

In Kulgam, the cadre of the JEI voting for the PDP was evident, with Tarigami’s victory margins against his PDP rivals coming down to just 334 and 236 votes in the polls in 2008 and 2014 respectively.

The biggest competition for Tarigami this time was independent candidate Sayar Ahmed Reshi, backed by the now-banned JeI.