Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, who took charge of Jammu and Kashmir for a second
time Sunday, developed a passion for politics in his teens when he met
then Kashmir "Prime Minister" Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad in the mid-1950s to
seek financial help for higher studies.
Sayeed's father, Mufti
Gulam Muhammad, was a religious preacher in the south Kashmir village of
Bijbehara and didn't own any farm land. His only income were the
donations from disciples and whatever he got by imparting religious
education to children.
The first in the family to go for formal
education, Sayeed realized he needed help for higher studies. So, he
called on the iconic Bakshi at his office in Srinagar.
"Something happened that day," a close friend told IANS. "Mufti Sahib has never been able to fully explain."
A
large number of people had also gathered to see Bakshi. Mufti wondered
-- the friend recalled -- if one day he too will meet people a la
Bakshi.
Sayeed did his post-graduation from the Aligarh Muslim University in Arabic and also obtained a law degree from there.
When he returned to Kashmir, he realized his dream -- politics.
Born
on January 12, 1936 into a poor family in Bijbehara village in Anantnag
district, Sayeed still respects the late Bakshi for developing the
state.
Over time, Sayeed too developed the habit of listening to all but taking his own decision.
Another
friend told IANS. "He has been in the high and low of politics but he
won't allow adversity or prosperity to go to his head."
Sayeed
set up the Congress party in the Kashmir Valley at a time when being a
member of a pro-India party and taking on the National Conference of
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah was seen as a virtual sin.
"But he stood up to Sheikh Abdullah," said Abdul Rehman, 80, who lives in Anantnag town.
Sayeed became a junior minister in the G.M. Sadiq-led Congress government in 1967.
In 1989, Sayeed became India's first -- and till date the only -- Muslim home minister when V.P. Singh was the prime minister.
This
was when separatism was taking roots in Kashmir. To make a point,
militants dramatically abducted Sayeed's younger daughter, Rubaiya
Sayeed, in Srinagar.
She was released in exchange for seven Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front activists.
In 1999, Sayeed, assisted by his firebrand elder daughter Mehbooba Mufti, formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It
won 16 seats in the 2002 assembly election, and Sayeed became the chief
minister after allying with the Congress and held the post for three
years.
In 2008, the PDP won 21 seats but remained in the opposition because the Congress teamed up with the National Conference.
After
winning all three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley in 2014, it was
widely felt that the PDP would sweep close to 40 seats in the assembly
elections of November-December last year.
The PDP did come on top of a hung assembly but won only 28 seats, a result that did not please Sayeed.
The
result threw up the most serious challenge in Sayeed's political
career: should he ally or not with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
seen in the valley as a pro-Hindu group. The BJP had 25 legislators.
It
took Sayeed more than two months to decide that he will. Critics will
blame him for bringing the BJP to power in India's only Muslim-majority
state.
Sayeed, his aides say, is determined to weed out corruption from Jammu and Kashmir and give it a transparent government.
Sayeed
told IANS: "I don't believe in having hiccups while addressing the
serious business of governance in a difficult state like ours.
"Everything
has been properly and logically addressed. It was not a question
whether I be chief minister for six years. The real question was to
ensure peace, progress and dignity."
Sayeed has two brothers and a
sister. The elder brother was also a religious preacher. The younger
brother served the forest department and retired as a forester. His
sister was a housewife.
Besides Mehbooba and Rubaiya, Sayeed has
another daughter, Mehmooda. His son, Mufti Tasaduq, is a cinematographer
in Hollywood. Sayeed was married into a family of 'Pirs'. His
brother-in-law, Sartaj Madni, was the deputy speaker of the last state
assembly.
