Jammu and Kashmir II: from 1953 to the 1987 election

Detail

1. After Abdullah: rule backed by the Centre (1953-74)

• 1953: Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed as the state's Prime Minister and jailed.

• He was held from 1953 to 1964, freed, and held again from 1965 to 1968.

• The leaders who came after him had little popular support.

• They stayed in power mainly because the Centre backed them.

• There were serious charges of malpractice and rigging (cheating to fix the result) in elections in these years.

• The Congress shaped state politics throughout this period.

• First, a truncated National Conference (NC) ruled with Congress support. "Truncated" means a cut-down party that no longer had Abdullah in it.
• Later this group merged into the Congress.

• Result: the Congress gained direct control of the state government.

• Background: a 1952 Presidential Order replaced the hereditary monarch with an elected head of state called the Sadr-i-Riyasat. The state's legislative assembly elected this person [3].

• 1965 change to the J&K Constitution:
• J&K had its own Constitution (1957), which Article 370 allowed. Article 370 was a temporary provision that limited how far the Indian Constitution applied to the state.
• The Sixth Amendment Act, 1965 changed two offices [3][7]:

Before 1965	After 1965
Prime Minister of J&K	Chief Minister
Sadr-i-Riyasat (elected head of state)	Governor (appointed by the President, as in other states)

• G.M. Sadiq became the first Chief Minister of J&K.
• This change brought J&K's offices into line with those of other Indian states.

2. The Plebiscite Front (1955)

• Plebiscite Front: a political organisation that Abdullah's followers set up in 1955.
• A plebiscite is a direct vote of all the people on one question. Here the question was the state's final status.

• The Front demanded that such a vote be held.

• The Front kept Abdullah's politics alive outside government while he was in jail.

• Delhi and Abdullah's camp made repeated attempts to reach an agreement before 1974.

3. The Indira-Sheikh Accord (1974-75)

• What it was: a political settlement between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah. It is also called the Kashmir Accord.
• How it was reached:
• Abdullah's aide Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg and the Centre's envoy G. Parthasarathi negotiated it [4].
• They signed the "Agreed Conclusions" on 13 November 1974 [4][5].

• The Accord was announced in February 1975 [5].

• Key terms:

• J&K is a "constituent unit of the Union of India", meaning a lasting part of the Union rather than a territory still to be decided [5].
• The relationship between the state and the Union would continue to be governed by Article 370.

• The accord kept a form of autonomy for the state inside the Indian Union [2].

• Plebiscite demand dropped:

• On 6 February 1975, Beg said that in the changed situation the plebiscite had become irrelevant. He also said the Plebiscite Front's name and aims had to change [5].

• The Front was wound up, and the National Conference was revived.

• Outcome:

• Abdullah became Chief Minister in 1975 [2].

• The NC, now joined again by the former Plebiscite Front, won a majority in the 1977 assembly election. Abdullah became CM again and stayed until his death [2].

• Why it mattered: it brought the main Kashmiri leader back into constitutional politics. It also rebuilt people's confidence in democracy.

4. The 1980s setback (1982-86)

• 1982: Sheikh Abdullah died. His son Farooq Abdullah became Chief Minister.
• 1984: the Governor dismissed Farooq.
• A breakaway faction of the NC took power. It was the Awami National Conference, led by Farooq's brother-in-law G.M. Shah [6].

• That government ruled only briefly.

• Why Kashmiris were angry:

• The Governor is the Centre's appointee.
• So people saw the dismissal of an elected CM as Delhi interfering in the state's politics.

• It undid much of the trust that the 1975 accord had built.

• 1986: the NC and the Congress formed an alliance.

• The NC had been Kashmir's main regional voice against Delhi. Its alliance with the Centre's ruling party strengthened the feeling that the state's politics was being run from Delhi.

5. The 1987 assembly election

• The official result: the NC-Congress alliance won a massive victory, and Farooq Abdullah returned as CM [6].
• The popular belief: the election was rigged. People thought it did not reflect how they had voted.

• Most of the rigging is believed to have been aimed at the Muslim United Front (MUF). The MUF was a coalition of opposition and religious groups. Some of its figures later led militant groups.

• Two grievances came together:

• Anger at poor administration: people had been angry since the early 1980s about an inefficient state government.

• Belief that democracy was being undermined: people felt the state's institutions were bending democratic processes at the Centre's bidding.

• The chain of events:

• A disputed election led to a loss of faith in the ballot.
• That turned into a political crisis.
• From 1989 the crisis became an insurgency, an armed revolt against the state.

• In 1990, central rule was imposed and Farooq's government was dismissed [6].

• A later official view: the Centre's group of interlocutors (talks representatives) noted in 2012 that Kashmiris had seen rigged elections, the dismissal of elected governments, the installation of compliant governments that would do Delhi's bidding, and the arrest of popular leaders [8].

6. Analysis: the democratic deficit

• Democratic deficit: a gap between what democracy promises (free elections, a government people choose) and what people actually get.

• J&K had three grievances: 1. its external dispute (with Pakistan); 2. the autonomy debate (how much Article 370 really protected); 3. the democratic deficit inside the state.

• Of the three, the democratic deficit was the immediate cause of the revolt that began in 1989.

• Link to NCERT's power-sharing lesson: regional demands are best handled through democratic negotiation and real sharing of power. Interfering with the result of that process (dismissals in 1953 and 1984, a doubtful election in 1987) turns a political demand into an armed one.

Prelims Hooks

• Plebiscite Front was formed in 1955 by Sheikh Abdullah's followers. It was wound up after the 1975 accord.
• Sixth Amendment, 1965 (J&K Constitution): "Prime Minister" became Chief Minister, and Sadr-i-Riyasat became Governor. G.M. Sadiq was the first CM.
• The Sadr-i-Riyasat office was created in 1952. The state assembly elected the holder.
• Indira-Sheikh Accord: the "Agreed Conclusions" were signed on 13 Nov 1974 by Mirza Afzal Beg and G. Parthasarathi. The accord was announced in Feb 1975. J&K was declared a "constituent unit of the Union", and Article 370 would continue to govern the relationship.
• Trap: Indira Gandhi and Abdullah did not personally sign the 1974 text. Their envoys, Beg and Parthasarathi, did.
• Abdullah was in jail from 1953 to 1964 and again from 1965 to 1968. He died in 1982 and was succeeded by Farooq Abdullah.
• 1984: Farooq was dismissed by the Governor. G.M. Shah of the breakaway Awami National Conference became CM.
• 1987 J&K assembly election: an NC-Congress victory, widely believed to be rigged. The main loser was the Muslim United Front.

Mains Points

• GS-I (post-1947 politics): the democratic deficit as the immediate cause. The Kashmir insurgency grew less from the external dispute than from internal failures:
• leaders the Centre backed (1953-74);
• a Governor dismissing an elected CM (1984);
• a rigged election (1987).

• Lesson: a disputed vote can turn people who use the ballot to complain into people who take up guns.

• GS-II (federalism and the Governor's role): the 1984 dismissal shows how the Governor's office could be used for political ends. This was the concern the Sarkaria Commission (1983-88) examined. Compare S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994), which later limited the misuse of Article 356 (President's rule, under which the Centre takes over a state's government). Under this ruling, the floor of the Assembly, not the Governor's opinion, tests whether a government has a majority.

• Accommodation works when it is real. The 1975 accord showed that bargaining could bring separatist politics back into constitutional politics: the Plebiscite Front was dissolved and the 1977 election was competitive. Its gains were lost when the Centre intervened again. Regional accords need continued good faith, not just a signature.
• Lessons for Indian regions in conflict (J&K, Punjab, the North-East): free and fair elections, autonomy that the Centre respects, and a clean, effective administration matter more than control from the Centre. The 2012 interlocutors' report repeated this lesson [8].