Every day, Chaudhary Mohammad Hanief, 70, leaves his house, located up in the hills of Dadkai village, at 9 am sharp. He walks down 2 km to reach the road and then walks another 5 km to reach Gandoh sub-district of Chenab valley. Throughout the day, he visits different offices with applications, complaints and demands of local villagers.
Hanief has been with the National Conference (NC) since his childhood. His father Mir Ali was with the NC when the party had launched the All Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front, after Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah바카라s arrest on August 9, 1953, in the Kashmir conspiracy case.
Sitting in his house, Hanief talks about his long association with the NC. 바카라We바카라ve been with NC all our lives. My father didn바카라t leave the party. I believe the vision of the party is supreme, irrespective of the actions of its party leaders,바카라 he adds.
He says during Sheikh바카라s time, the party was immensely popular in his area due to its 바카라land to the tiller바카라 reforms, and for decades its influence remained strong in the Chenab valley, as in other districts of Jammu and Kashmir. However, he is also a witness to the waning influence of the NC in the region and holds the party responsible for it.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has a deep influence in the area covering Dadkai, Gandoh and Soti in district Doda. Azad is revered here for his developmental work, carried out after he became CM of the state in 2005. Over the years, most political leaders and workers of different parties have switched loyalties to join the Congress, but Hanief has continued with the NC.
But Hanief says these days, youngsters refuse to join the NC, as the party appears to have adopted a top-down approach to leadership. Today, party workers constitute mostly those people who had some residual affiliation with the party from Sheikh Abdullah바카라s time. 바카라The youngsters see better prospects in other parties. One of the reasons for this is that my party gives more weightage to former bureaucrats who join the party, than grassroots workers,바카라 he adds. 바카라I don바카라t feel the NC would win any seat in the Chenab valley, if this trend continues,바카라 he adds.
Hanief has never been to the party headquarters at Nawai Subh in Srinagar, where many young NC leaders seem to share his view. Most of these young leaders also happen to be related to senior NC leaders who had once risen up the ranks within the party.
While Hanief is in favour of reforms within the party바카라calling for propping up of grassroots leaders바카라the young NC leaders at the party headquarters appear stuck in a time warp of the Sheikh바카라s 바카라land to the tiller바카라 reforms. On October 17, 1950, the then PM of J&K, Sheikh Abdullah, had declared a policy of liquidating big landed estates and transferring land to the tiller by enacting the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act. A century of Dogra rule had seen usurpation of nearly all land in the Valley by the ruling class, as most of the 22 lakh acres of cultivable land in Kashmir legally belonged to either the Maharaja, his jagirdars or a small coterie of landlords called chakdars.
According to Sheikh바카라s biographer Muhammad Yousuf Taing, till the 바카라land to the tiller바카라 law of 1950 came into force, even daughters of poor peasants were treated as part of the estate on which the landlords enjoyed absolute rights. The sweeping land reforms of 1950 changed the complexion of Kashmiri society, releasing around 160,000 acres of land from landlords in Kashmir and 310,000 acres in Jammu, empowering 87 per cent of people of the state.
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While the reforms brought die-hard cadres like Hanief바카라s father into the party, the new generation has different aspirations, and the party바카라s current leaders are aware of that. They say after abrogation of Article 370, many political leaders kept jumping from one party to another, but this did not happen in the NC as it is cadre-driven.
For Salman Sagar, the party바카라s youth president, NC was running on the sentiment of people throughout Jammu and Kashmir up until the 1990s, when militancy erupted in the region. According to him, in the past few decades, the sentiment바카라especially in the Valley바카라switched toward separatist politics, as a large section of youths started identifying with it. In Jammu too, he says, there has been a drift toward other parties.
He adds though that after the abrogation of Article 370, there is a sea change in people바카라s behaviour, with expectations from the party again rising across Jammu and Kashmir. 바카라Many youngsters are joining the party. We don바카라t say the coming elections are about development, or that we바카라ll provide drainage and other facilities once in power. These are duties of any government, and we바카라ll do that. But we will fight elections on an ideological plank. We바카라ll say loudly that we바카라ll strive for the restoration of Article 370 and preservation of Jammu and Kashmir바카라s unique identity, which resonates with what people here aspire for.바카라
바카라You don바카라t give up your ideological goals so easily. It took BJP 70 years to abrogate Article 370. It might take us seven years to see its restoration. That doesn바카라t mean we should give up,바카라 he adds.
Dr Sajad Uri, whose father Mohammad Shafi Uri was a minister in Farooq Abdullah바카라s cabinet, is one of the party바카라s young leaders from Uri tehsil of Baramulla, around 100 km from Srinagar. The party, he says, is like any other cadre-based party like CPI(M) and CPI. 바카라Since its foundation, when the party changed its name from Muslim Conference to National Conference and fought against Maharaja Hari Singh바카라s autocratic rule, the party has played a major role in changing the lives of people바카라. 바카라I have seen workers who haven바카라t got anything from the party. But they realise that the party바카라s existence is vital for Kashmir,바카라 he adds. He says when militancy erupted in the Valley, a large number of NC workers were killed to destroy the party, but when elections were held in 1996, it was the dedicated party cadre who came out to vote risking their lives. 바카라And in 2000, the party respected their sentiment and passed a resolution in the assembly for the restoration of autonomy,바카라 he adds.
바카라Despite difficulties, we바카라re working hard to increase our membership beyond the traditional cadre,바카라 says NC's state spokesman Imran Nabi Dar. His father Ghulam Nabi Dar was a party MLA in 1983, who was assassinated in a militant attack in 2006.
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바카라I think one of the biggest contributions of the NC is the 바카라land to the tiller바카라. The older cadre understand its importance,바카라 he says, adding they have seen the benefits of these reforms directly. He says the younger generation is starting to realise this too.
Abid Wani, 29, a software engineer who joined the party in 2019 from the Khanyar constituency of Srinagar at Sagar바카라s behest, says that before the abrogation of Article 370, Kashmiri nationalism co-existed in the minds of Kashmiris alongside Indian nationalism. 바카라The abrogation was an attempt to destroy the idea of Kashmiri nationalism, but the NC will continue to fight for it,바카라 he adds.
While 바카라ideological reasons바카라 dominate conversations among the party바카라s young leaders, for Hanief, being an NC cadre is a way to reach out to the people. 바카라Land reforms are fine, but we have different challenges today. I cannot afford to sit at home. I have to reach out to the people,바카라 the dedicated NC cadre concludes.
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