Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA from Kulgam, Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, ran his eyes over the framed photographs of Cuban revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara nailed on the wall of the wood-panelled room of his residence in Srinagar.
Seventy-six and silver-haired, Tarigami gestures at portraits of Abdul Ahad Azad and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, insisting Kashmir remember its revolutionaries too for their love and humanism.
“Azad was a revolutionary poet. People in Kashmir need to read about him and understand his contribution,” he says, adding that the words of BR Ambedkar -- whose photo also adorns the wall -- remind Kashmir of humanism in a time of hate. True revolutionaries, he adds, are driven by love.
Tarigami is a rare politician in Kashmir who has consistently won elections from the Kulgam assembly constituency, considered a Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) stronghold since 1996. He has been associated with communist politics in Kashmir since 1967, when he raised farmers’ issues and joined an agitation demanding students at Anantnag Degree College be allowed to continue their education even if they failed in one subject.
Although the CPI and CPI(M) formally entered Jammu and Kashmir later, Leftist thought had shaped local politics long before 1947. It influenced the Quit Kashmir movement in the 1940s, which sought an end to Dogra rule. Historians say the Naya Kashmir manifesto also drew from Left ideas on land reforms and building a welfare-oriented state including abolishing big estates and giving land to tillers.
Waseem Ahmad Bhat, Assistant Professor of Political Science, says the Leftist thought had an influence on the National Conference (NC) founder, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s, policies. “Leftist thought had a great influence on the framing of the Naya Kashmir document that talked about the rights of women and the marginalised sections of society,” Bhat said, adding that the Left shaped the Quit Kashmir Movement of 1946, inspired NC factions to form the Democratic National Conference and Democratic Conference in 1957 and influenced Sheikh Abdullah and former chief minister GM Sadiq while communist parties formally organised in the 1960s.
Ghulam Mohammad Mizrab, secretary of the CPI state council, says that there was a group within the NC that was influenced by Left ideology, which got separated from the party to start the CPI in Kashmir. “Left had an influence on the policies of the NC and the measure of taking land from the landlords and distributing it among the tillers was part of that ideology,” Mizrab says. After that the Left went through a quiet spell in Kashmir, before the CPI set up its base in 1967.
CPI(M) also had Mohammad Khalil Naik as MLA from Wachi in 2002, though he later lost the seat to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. The Left has also highlighted civil liberty curbs after Article 370’s abrogation.
“After the revocation of Article 370, I was put under house arrest, and we went to the Supreme Court for my treatment, as I was not keeping well,” says Tarigami.
Tarigami pointed to the wooden fence where security personnel had blocked him from stepping down the stone stairs and leaving his home on Gupkar Road during his arrest after Kashmir’s special status was revoked. Others along the road, like former chief ministers Omar Abdullah, his father Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, were also detained. The steep stretch is now heavily patrolled with police sniffer dogs and mine detectors. Tarigami has been vocal against the Article 370 decision as a CPI(M) leader and part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration seeking restoration of the earlier status.
“The first time I was detained was in the late 1960s. I was first arrested under the Defence of India Rules, and later, when Sheikh Abdullah amended the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) and named it the Public Safety Act, I was imprisoned at Central Jail, Srinagar,” says Tarigami, who was formerly with the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML), before he joined the CPI(M). Tarigami, who fought his first election in 1983, lost twice, before he went on to win the five elections consistently from Kulgam.
The Kulgam assembly constituency has remained a Jamaat bastion and the seat was won in 1972 by Abdul Razak Mir on the Jamaat-e-Islami ticket. In the 2024 polls, Tarigami won the seat by defeating JeI-backed independent candidate Sayar Ahmad Reshi in what was seen as the people endorsing his years of work for development. The 2024 assembly polls were widely read as a verdict against the revocation of Article 370, with the NC sweeping a majority of seats in Kashmir.
Waseem says the thrust of the CPI(M) on development rather than the religious politics has worked in Tarigami’s favour. “Tarigami lost the elections earlier as he was fighting against the established political parties,” Waseem adds.
Inside his office in the relatively affluent neighbourhood of Gogji Bagh in Srinagar, where private coaching centres and other institutions have come up alongside government colleges, Ganie says, the CPI has been at the forefront of opposing government policies that have made it difficult for workers to protest. Slouched on a plastic chair in the sparsely furnished office where the CPI banner with the sickle and hammer covers a concrete wall, Ganie, who is the party’s state council member, further says “In Kashmir there are restrictions on unions and workers’ associations to organise peaceful protest rallies. Registration of unions has become difficult. Curbs on civil liberties have increased since the revocation of Kashmir’s special status and we have been consistently demanding the restoration of Article 370 and democratic politics.”
BJP general secretary (organisation), Ashok Koul, however, says that the party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has launched many schemes to ensure the welfare of workers and the poor. “People have rejected the Left parties. They have no base in India. We have launched schemes giving training in the trade of handicrafts to those belonging to the members of the OBC category and have also offered monetary assistance to the street vendors,” he says.
Congress senior leader, GN Monga, too, says that his party has worked for the welfare of marginalised sections of society. “Through our welfare schemes, we have been able to uplift the downtrodden sections of society and we are committed towards ensuring equal rights for all people.”
Local trade unions in Jammu and Kashmir have often been supported by the Left during protests on employee rights. Vice president of Jammu and Kashmir Co-ordination of Trade Unions Gurmeet Singh says the Left has backed their opposition to new labour laws brought by the government. “We have opposed the policies of the government to increase the working hours for which we have been supported by the Left parties,” Singh says, adding that they want the old pension scheme restored and oppose power sector privatisation, which he says will raise electricity costs and put employees’ jobs at risk.
Ganie says over two lakh employees working as casual labourers or daily wagers remain in a deplorable state. “The rich are becoming richer while the poor struggle for meals and a few billionaires hold the country’s wealth.”
CPI(M) member Abdul Rashid says the party has protested anti-worker policies and authorities have denied permission for peaceful rallies against pro-capitalist measures.
Rashid says they protested new labour codes introduced by the Central government that tighten the corporate hold on working-class people. Factories with 300 or fewer staff can now be shut without informing the government and a hire and fire policy has been enabled. He adds they work with affiliate organisations to raise concerns of Anganwadi workers, daily wagers and casual staff seeking fair wages and real improvements in their lives.
“From time to time, we have urged the authorities that they should make policies which would improve the condition of farmers through measures like minimum support price (MSP),” Rashid adds.
