Ehsan Fazili/Srinagar

“As a politician, I have always raised my voice boldly for the country in Kashmir without caring about the threat to my life”, says Dr Darakhshan Andrabi, national executive member of the BJP and the chairperson of the J&K Waqf Board.

As the first woman head of the Waqf Board in India, she has proved her managerial capabilities by restructuring the J&K unit and making it self-sustaining. Besides, her appointment as Chairperson of the J&K Waqf Board was a revolutionary move by the Narendra Modi government, as it ended the mindset of such bodies being an all-male domain. She revolutionised the management of the board, improved public conveniences and refurbished spaces of Dargahs and shrines under the Waqf across J&K.

As a BJP leader sheo held various positions in the party’s central setup for over three decades. Andrabi’s appointment as the first woman Chairperson – with the status of  Minister of State - of J&K Waqf Board on March 16, 2022, had surprised many people and even raised many eyebrows.

Dr Syed Darakhshan Andrabi

This was the first such appointment post-August 5, 2019, when the J&K Waqf Board came under the Central Waqf Board, as J&K’s special status was withdrawn. Her experience as a member of the central Waqf Board was her main qualification for the coveted yet sensitive job.

Syed Darakhshan Andrabi, 52, is a national executive member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and also the party’s Core Group member of J&K, one of the few leaders from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley to reach that position. She has also served as State Spokesperson, State Secretary and State Vice President of the BJP.

Before joining the BJP, she led the “national political force”, called the Socialist Democratic Party in J&K State, which fought the separatist lobby of Kashmiri politicians for years.

Darakshan Andrabi being felicitated

Besides her social and political career, Andrabi is a poet, writer, and literary critic. She continues to write poetry, short stories, critical and research-based literary articles and papers in Kashmiri and Urdu.

As a writer, she has contributed immensely to the literature of these languages and has been acknowledged by the art critics as a “writer of uniqueness”. She has left a mark as a literary commentator and communicator, with her columns appearing in reputed journals and magazines of India.

Dr Darakhshan Andrabi completed her Master's degree in Urdu from the University of Kashmir and her PhD from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. 

Holding the responsibilities as its Chairperson, Dr Andrabi transformed the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, which had been in a state of decline after years of looting and mismanagement by the ruling regional parties who had headed and controlled the Board for decades.

Darakshan Andrabi planting a sapling

It was previously known as the Muslim Awqaf Trust, an independent body responsible for managing the state's mosques and shrines. It was transformed into the J&K Waqf Board by the former Chief Minister in his first tenure in 2003.

“I made it a self-reliant organisation within a year and started upgrading shrines and other properties under the Board. Amid huge threats and opposition from dynasts, I continued with the reformative work. Now all Waqf assets are digitalised with proper records of funds and expenditures. I increased the salaries of the staff, created new departments and assets,” she told Awaz in an exclusive interview.

Her work was appreciated by the Minister of Minority Affairs, Kiren Rijiju in the Parliament. Rijiju termed the working of the J&K Waqf Board as the role model for the country. The development works are continuing in full speed.

A clip about Syed Darakhshan Andrabi's viti to a dargah:

Before over as head of thee Waqf, she organised many programmes of “historic importance and conducted seminars and rallies on peace and themes concerning the issues and situations related to Kashmir”.

Darakhshan Andrabi organised campaigns like “Vote for India” and “Referendum for Peace” which, in due course, helped in changing the mindset of people of J&K and steered them towards democracy and mainstream politics.

“These campaigns have helped in exposing the separatists regarding Kashmir and their baseless propaganda,” she says. She is also known for remaining as the “Voice of India” during the “hardcore terrorism days amid semi-separatist voices of the local mainstream politicians”, speaking in clear terms against the appeasement of separatists by the local rulers.

Darakhshan Andrabi in her office

Andrabi has been engaged in social work, peacemaking in Kashmir, extending financial help to militancy-hit people and victims of natural calamities and also carried out civic action programmes. Her crusade against corruption across India has received support from many organisations. She has also initiated many women's welfare and empowerment programmes in the troubled valley, where women have suffered a lot due to the militancy-related incidents.

Darakhshan Andrabi has earlier held various official positions, which include Chairperson of the Waqf Development Committee of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Member of the Central Waqf Council, Chairperson of Education & Women Welfare Committee of the Ministry of Minority Affairs and Member of the Maulana Azad National Society for Education.

Besides, she is also a Member of the J&K State Social Welfare Advisory Board and the Central Waqf Council.

The interiors of the refurbished Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar, a dream project of Darakshan Andrabi

Having a command over speaking, reading and writing Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi and English languages, Darakhshan Andrabi has been writing poetry, short stories, criticism, research, translations and columns. She has published five collections of Urdu and Kashmiri poetry, which include Dil Hi Kaafir Hogaya (Urdu) and Ahsaasan Hinde Sheeshe Khane (Kashmiri).

She also has to her credit five books published on criticism and translations, besides nearly two dozen papers in English, Urdu and Kashmiri. Other publications include research papers, essays, reviews, interviews and critical notes in many journals and magazines of India.

She has also worked as Editor of ‘Sheeraza’, the bi-monthly Urdu journal of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, with a significant contribution in setting new objective trends in literary journalism.  She also worked as Honorary Executive Editor of the daily newspaper, ‘The Third Eye’ published from Srinagar.

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Her reports have been published in different local and national journals, periodicals, tabloid papers and magazines on social, political and current economic themes.