How an old Article 370 slogan has put BJP on backfoot in Kashmir

One such rally was organised in South Kashmir’s Anantnag and attended by around two dozen people, including some women. The rally was led by Sofi Mohammad Yousuf, the BJP’s vice president for Jammu & Kashmir and one of the party’s most prominent faces in Kashmir.

During the rally, Yousuf and other BJP workers raised a slogan that was widely seen as demeaning the women of Kashmir: “Maklaw, Aezi Hund, Faezi hund izzat (the honour and dignity of Aez and Faez has ended).” As they raised the slogans, the BJP workers made aggressive gestures, pumping fists in air and repeatedly stomping their feet.

Aez, a shortened name for Azizah or Azizi, and Faez were common women’s names in Kashmir in the past and have come to symbolise motherhood in Kashmiri society. The slogans, therefore, carried a deeper cultural meaning beyond the literal words.

The decades-old history of the slogan

The BJP workers appeared to have tweaked a decades-old NC slogan that linked the dignity and honour of Kashmiri women with Jammu and Kashmir’s special status that was revoked on August 5, 2019.

The slogan dates back to the 1977 Assembly elections, held in the aftermath of the Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah accord of 1975.

The accord paved the way for Abdullah’s return to power as Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister after 22 years. It reaffirmed the state’s special status under Article 370 while allowing for a review of the Centre-state relationship.

Sheikh Abdullah addresses a gathering at Lal Chowk in Srinagar in 1975. Wikimedia Commons

One of the key slogans used by the National Conference during its election campaign was: “Aezi Hund izzat, Faezi Hund izzat, dafah 370, dafah 370 (the honour and dignity of Aez and the honour and dignity of Faez lies in Article 370, or the special status).”

The slogan was a political expression of the National Conference’s argument that Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir’s special status were closely tied to the region’s identity, dignity and political autonomy.

The anger and the apology

The BJP has been arguing that the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir has paved the way for equal rights to the women of the Union Territory. In this backdrop, the slogans have been widely viewed as undercutting BJP’s own narrative on women empowerment.

Nasir Aslam Wani, a National Conference leader and adviser to chief minister Omar Abdullah, said the slogans raised by the BJP reflected the “disturbing erosion of moral standards in politics”.

National Conference leader Tanvir Sadiq called it an insult to the mothers of Kashmir. “Aez and Faez are not just names — they are our mothers, our sisters, our identity,” Sadiq said.

Separatist leader and Shia cleric Masroor Abbas Ansari also described the slogans as “disturbing”.

The anger has prompted the BJP to respond. It said in a circular announcing the suspensions: “The said rally was neither organised nor authorised by the BJP District Unit Anantnag nor had it obtained the requisite permission from the District Administration… It has been unanimously decided to initiate strict disciplinary actions against those found responsible for organising and participating in the unauthorised rally”. However, no action has been taken against Yousuf.