On Valentine’s Day in 2008, three boats on the Chenab sailed from Akhnoor in Jammu towards Pakistan carrying rose-mounted toy guns, heart-shaped balloons, and a message of peace and love. For several years, these boats sailed towards Pakistan annually on February 14. The brain behind this was Darakhshan Andrabi, then an emerging peace activist and founder of the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP).
By 2014, Andrabi’s political ambitions had gravitated her towards the BJP. Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board chairperson found herself in the middle of a political storm as parties in the Valley demanded her resignation and apology over the installation of a plaque with the Ashoka emblem at the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar, which houses the holy relic of the Prophet. On September 5, devotees tried to take down the plaque with stones, and raised slogans saying the emblem was against the belief of “Tawheed (oneness of God)”.
Having merged the SDP with the BJP just before the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections of 2014, Andrabi first got into electoral politics when she contested from Sonawar in Srinagar, against National Conference (NC) leader and current Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Mir won, with Andrabi polling only 1,100 votes and forfeiting her deposit. But that did not stop her rise in the BJP, and in March 2022, with J&K under the Lieutenant Governor’s administration, she was made the Union Territory’s Waqf Board chief. The move raised eyebrows in the Valley as well as within the BJP, as per sources.
Originally from Lakdhipora village in South Kashmir’s Kulgam, Andrabi’s father Ghulam Nabi Shah migrated to Srinagar several decades ago. Darakshan was born Kounsar Jan, and changed her name to the word meaning ‘light’ during her college days. She holds a Master’s degree in Urdu from Kashmir University and a doctorate in Urdu from Guru Nanak Dev University in Punjab.
Andrabi first came to the spotlight when she became the editor of Sheeraza, an Urdu magazine published by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art and Culture.
A self-described “staunch nationalist”, she led campaigns such as ‘Vote for India’ and ‘Aman Ke Liye Rai Shumaari (A Referendum for Peace)’ when in the SDP, earning her a following among large sections of the youth and the moniker ‘Daughter of India’.
In a blog that she writes, Andrabi claims, “My political mission has bridged the gap between different regions and communities of Jammu & Kashmir. Have composed poems and also written extensively for defence forces.”
However, over the years, she has earned as many foes as friends, both in the BJP and outside. While people in the Valley question her credentials to be appointed the Waqf Board chairperson, a section of the BJP in J&K is also critical of her “controversial statements”, saying they fritter away the gains the party has painstakingly made in the Union Territory.
A Srinagar-based BJP leader said: “We have given our blood and sweat to this party. We started it when nobody wanted the BJP tag. She came in 2014, contested elections, and was made a National Executive Member and chairperson of the Board!”
A senior leader said that making a person who has “always been controversial in the public eye” the chairperson of the Waqf Board, “showed the government’s insensitivity towards the Muslim majority”.
According to a BJP leader, Andrabi was one reason the party was not able to win a seat in the Valley in last year’s Assembly elections. “She used her influence to give tickets to people close to her, who had recently joined the party and didn’t have a ground base. The result was before everyone. We lost badly, but she managed to stick to her position.”
Within the Waqf Board, Andrabi is accused of creating a coterie of officials and religious clerics. “When she took over as the chairperson, she stopped the pension of retired employees without any reason. They had to go to court,” a Waqf Board employee points out.
The emblem row has given fresh ammunition to her critics. As the political storm raged, Asif Masoodi, an old BJP hand in the Valley, accused the 50-year-old of being “more concerned about her own political career than the party”.
However, there are many in the BJP who appreciate Andrabi’s style of working. “She is very decisive. If she decides on something, she works wholeheartedly for it without caring how the people will view it,” a BJP leader said, pointing to the many shrines which have been renovated during her Waqf tenure.
The leader who contested the 2024 Assembly elections admits he got the ticket due to Andrabi, but adds, “that again is her quality”. “She decides on merit, not your affiliations and closeness to different power centres in the party.”
Another party leader said she backs those who have no one else backing them. “This is a problem in our party. There are many power centres and every leader has aligned himself to one or other. For those like me not close to any leader, she is our power centre. She supports leaders who don’t have any backing and it doesn’t go down well with others in the party,” the leader said.
But for now, with the Central leadership behind her, Andrabi remains in control.
