Hyderabad: Until a person is legally proven guilty, he is innocent, even if he languishes in jail for years. Beyond innocence, he can prove popular and stake a claim to represent the people. This can happen in a democratic system, and we witnessed it in two ideologically embattled regions in north India--Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The country's electoral system allows under-trials to run for public posts if the courts have not pronounced them guilty.
This leeway encouraged Sheikh Abdur Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid to file his nomination papers from the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency of Kashmir and Amritpal Singh from the Khadoor Sahib constituency in Punjab. Both have won the election with a large margin against their immediate rivals in the contest.
Interestingly, Engineer Rashid's nearest rival was the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah. While Rashid gets the good news in the confines of Delhi's Tihar jail, Amrit Pal Singh, a radical Sikh preacher and chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit is lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act (NSA).
Engineer Rashid is jailed since August 2019. He was in the first batch of mainstream and separatist politicians, who were bundled by the authorities in the run-up to the central government's decision to read down Articles 370 and 35A, which provided constitutional guarantees to Jammu and Kashmir. Almost all mainstream politicians were released two to three months after the event but Rashid was not lucky enough. Reason: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has booked him in a terror funding case and he is accused of anti-national activities.
Nevertheless, Rashid emerged triumphant with flying colours stunning bigwigs in former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and People's Conference Chief Sajad Lone.
Sensing the inevitable, Omar took to X hours before his defeat was pronounced. "I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. I don’t believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to but the voters have spoken and in a democracy that’s all that matters," he wrote in a post on X.
Rashid proved to be a dark horse. Most political observers counted him as a strong contestant but nobody really gave him a real chance. Jailed himself, Rashid's two sons appeared too late on the scene but created a storm. Youth gathered around them whenever they appeared in a village or a township in the expansive constituency surrounded by the Line of Control in the north. They kept their appeal precise. "Our father is innocent. We want him to be out of jail. If you vote for him, he will be released," they said. People built a connection with the boys.
Rashid was a nondescript junior engineer with Projects Construction Corporation till 2008 with an ideological inclination towards the late Abdul Gani Lone, a Hurriyat Conference leader who was gunned down by militants in 2002. He would occasionally write articles in Urdu newspapers on political issues. In 2008, he quit the government job to contest assembly elections and surprisingly won his native Langate constituency. For his simple demeanor and antics, he proved himself a "different politician" who claimed to be speaking only for the interest of the people of Kashmir.
In 2014, he was re-elected from the same constituency. During his innings as a legislator, Rashid was very vocal in and outside the erstwhile assembly for "the resolution of the Kashmir issue." He courted controversies for hosting a "beef party" at legislators' hostel or blaming the Army for staging "surgical strikes" during a video shoot in the backyard of his constituency.
This, perhaps, invited his arrest before August 5, 2019. He remained invisible from the scene. The fellow politicians dreaded his mention and newspapers blacked out his name. Occasionally, his relatives would record a video call with him and circulate it amongst his followers. In one such call, he counsels his voters to remain steadfast and resilient.
On many counts, Rashid is similar to Amritpal Singh who has also registered a resounding victory from Khadoor Sahib constituency of Punjab. Singh was declared a fugitive after he assumed the leadership of a radical outfit 'Waris Punjab De' (heirs of Punjab) in 2022. He was immensely popular amongst the youth for preaching traditional Sikhism and launching an anti-drug movement, which he blamed on the powers that be to inflict on the younger generation. He went underground after a crackdown was launched against his "separatist outfit".
On April 23, 2023, Amritpal Singh was arrested following the violent storming of a police station in Ajnala. He was later booked under the NSA and lodged at Dibrugarh central jail in Assam along with nine of his aides. Amritpal had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking 7 days time to file the nomination during the nomination phase of Lok Sabha election 2024. But the High Court refused to interfere saying entire process of Amritpal's nomination will be handled by the Superintendent of Dibrugarh Jail, Assam, where he is currently imprisoned along with nine of his aides.
The Shiromani Akali Dal, which had initially fielded Harpal Singh Baler from Khadoor Sahib, withdrew his nomination from the seat after Amritpal Singh's nomination papers were approved by the authorities. Like Rashid, he is accused of waging a war against the country.
The public chose Rashid and Amritpal as their representatives in the 19th Lok Sabha. Whether they will be given the luxury of taking the oath of secrecy and speaking for the people who gave the verdict in their favour, is a million dollar question the answer of which will unravel in coming days.
Politicians Who Successfully Contested From Prison:
- George Fernandez: In 1977, George Fernandez won the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar on a Janata Party ticket — this was the election that he contested while being in jail. George went underground when the Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975, but he was arrested in Calcutta (Kolkata) on June 10, 1976. He was charged in the infamous Baroda Dynamite Case, and lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi.The Emergency was lifted in 1977, and elections were announced. George was in favour of boycotting the polls, but was persuaded by Morarji Desai, who went on to become India’s first non-Congress Prime Minister, to contest.While George himself remained confined to Tihar, hundreds of his friends and followers from various states, including trade unionists from Bombay, students and Lohiaite teachers from Delhi University, and youth supporters from all over the country fanned out in his constituency to campaign. His mother Alice Fernandes, and brother Lawrence Fernandes, too joined the campaign. Out of the 5.12 lakh votes polled, George got 3.96 lakh, which was more than 78%, while Congress candidate Nitishwer Prasad Singh got only a little more than 12%. George became a minister in Desai’s government, and was given charge first of Communications, and then of Industry.
- Mukhtar Ansari: In 1996, late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari contested the Mau Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh on a BSP ticket against Congress heavyweight Kalpnath Rai while he was in prison and won. Mukhtar Ansari and two other people were charged with the murder of Kapil Dev Singh in April 2009. Ansari passed away in March this year following heart failure.
- Kalpnath Raai: Former Union minister Kalpnath Rai contested the 1996 Lok Sabha elections from behind bars and won the Ghosi constituency by defeating gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. The union minister was behind bars in 1996 in a TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act) case.
- Azam Khan: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and Rampur MLA Azam Khan won Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022 by 55,000 votes while in jail. The SP leader was later convicted in a 2019 hate speech case and was disqualified from the Assembly seat.
- Nahid Hassan: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Nahid Hassan also contested the Kairana Assembly seat in 2022 from jail and won.
- Mohammad Shahabuddin: In 1999, the late Shahabuddin won the Siwan seat in Bihar from jail and won. He was later convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to life.
- Akhil Gogoi: Well-known RTI activist from Assam, Akhil Gogoi, contested the Assam Assembly polls in 2021 from Sibsagar seat while he was in jail, and won. When he contested the Assembly polls, Gogoi was under arrest since 2019 for his alleged involvement in anti-CAA protests in the state. He won the election from the historic Sibsagar constituency in Upper Assam with a margin of 11,875 votes.
- Engineer Rashid: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been defeated by Abdul Rashid Sheikh who is also known as Engineer Rashid from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat. He has secured a victory by a margin of over one lakh votes. Rashid’s victory comes as a shock as the candidate had been in Tihar Jail for the past 5 years held under the charges of UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). The election campaign was led by his two sons as he was in jail at that point.
- Amritpal Singh: In a major upset in the Lok Sabha election 2024 results in Punjab, jailed Sikh separatist leader and Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh has dramatically won the Khadoor Sahib seat of the state by a comprehensive margin of over 1.5 lakh votes, latest data by the Election Commission of India have said.
