How Er Rashid’s Political Kingdom Crashed Under His Miscalculations And Political Crudity
Engineer Rashid, the fiery politician from Kashmir, gained wide attention when he was arrested in 2019 and lodged in Tihar Jail allegedly for terror-funding activities. Hardly would he have thought that he would emerge as Member Parliament while being in jail, defeating J&K’s political titan Omar Abdullah with a huge margin of 2,04,142 votes.
Crude, Politically Immature Conduct
As the Assembly elections neared, Er Rashid was released from jail (which his opponents thought as a strategic move by BJP to cut the vote share). Immediately, he addressed the press and hosted a social media live session. There he vented out his emotions, frustration, slangs, Kashmiri proverbs (yaan rat gaav nat rat wucxe, rang cxer) towards his counterparts including the BJP, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.
All this looked cheap, and far removed from political maturity. Instead of taking measured steps and banking on his political success as MP, Er Rashid’s political rallies and speeches became more and more banal and inflammatory, filled with derogatory words and personal comments.
Engineer Rashid’s crass political messaging and his inability to free himself from the ‘BJP proxy’ tag led people to vote against him
The same podium and speeches that gravitated huge masses towards him now made him seem more reckless and less strategic. His fiery rhetoric (now filled with slang) that galvanized people proved disastrous for him. These politically immature gimmicks played by Er Rashid tarnished his image even among his own followers. Some people started pondering whether Er Rashid had crossed the line from popularity to divisiveness and from politeness to indecency. The sympathy and love from the public that once propelled his political engine seemed to run out of fuel within the evolving political games of the Valley.
Failure To Effectively Counter The ‘BJP Proxy’ Tag
The Opposition leaders cashed in. They labelled him as a BJP proxy and kept him engaged in disproving this tag. Omar Abdullah of National Conference and People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone left no stone unturned to sow seeds of doubt among people about him.
Instead of using his resources meticulously, Er Rashid played into the hands of the Opposition. Instead of devising a mature political strategy, Er Rashid kept himself busy with social media lives and high adrenaline speeches. People soon became saturated with his hyperbole. His crude political messaging and his inability to free himself from the ‘BJP proxy’ tag led people to vote against him.
Time has proved that Er Rashid’s approach boomeranged. He won one out of the 45 contested seats. Even in his home constituency Langate, the AIP candidate and his brother Khursheed Ahmad Shiekh faced a tough fight from his opponent Irfan Sultan Pandithpori and won by a narrow margin of 1602 votes. The hopes of his party to repeat the stellar show during the Parliamentary elections were decimated. Engineer Rashid’s political kingdom structured around emotions, victimization, anti-establishment rhetoric crashed under his own miscalculations and political immaturity.
Er Rashid’s tragic downfall reminds us of how complex and dynamic is the political space of Jammu and Kashmir. A leader who from the jail bulldozed every odd stacked against him during the Parliamentary elections now seems razed to ground. Er Rashid’s journey is not just a rise and fall story but a testament to the lack of political maturity and evolution in the ever-evolving space of Jammu and Kashmir. A deep introspection about the loss, restructuring of party cadre, mending of political behaviour and political inclusiveness are just some of the options Er Rashid may ponder upon.
Author is a PhD Research Scholar at University of Kashmir