Search the Internet          Tips

Hurriyat unlikely to split over Geelani issue

Chindu Sreedharan in Srinagar

The Jamaat-e-Islami's refusal to replace Syed Ali Shah Geelani as its representative to the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference will not split or blunt that separatist conglomerate, maintains APHC chairman Professor Abdul Gani Bhat.

"It will have no effect," said the 64-year-old leader of the Muslim Conference, a major constituent of the 23-party APHC.

"The Jamaat is part of the Hurriyat. You must remember it is a forum of parties, not individuals," Bhat stressed to rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

Bhat, who became chairman last year thanks to Geelani's support, had written to Amir-e-Jamaat [the chief of Jamaat] Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, seeking Geelani's replacement.

"There are bound to be differences between members of any political party or even a household," Bhat said. "But the differences are not so material as to lead to a split, horizontal or vertical."

While the APHC welcomed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's truce offer, Geelani had adopted a hardline stand, seeking to project "the political problem of Kashmir as a religious issue".

The Jamaat, however, has turned down the APHC chairman's request for now. A recent meeting considered whether the Jamaat would be expelled from the Hurriyat and held, according to a media report: 'The Jamaat is too big and strong a party to be expelled from the Hurriyat Conference. By doing so, the Hurriyat will lose its credibility. Even if it happens, a parallel political platform shall be formed.'

The APHC's seven-member executive council -- besides Geelani and Bhat, it includes Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (Awami Action Committee), Yasin Malik (Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front), Abbas Ansari (Ittehadul Muslemeen), Sheikh Abdul Aziz (People's League) and Abdul Gani Lone (People's Conference) -- is scheduled to meet shortly.

"The executive council will discuss the issue and arrive at a decision," Bhat said.

Was he, as chairman, considering action against the Jamaat? Bhat would not comment.

"My personal opinion will surface at the meeting," he said.

The chairman, however, expressed his unhappiness at Geelani's stand and his criticism of Lone and the APHC.

"…I feel a little concerned about certain friends making statements which perhaps could have been avoided. But then, these are issues that will be taken up in our forthcoming meeting.

"…I hope and trust that the members of Hurriyat Conference realises the responsibility he is to shoulder, understand the duty he is to discharge, the duty he owes his conscience and the people. Therefore, emotionalism, sentimentalism… are probably things we should avoid."

Interestingly, his letter to the Jamaat chief can be seen as an invitation to G M Bhat to step into the APHC -- as of now, Geelani is the only representative in the conference who is not the head of his party.

An early consequence of the cease-fire, political observers point out, is that it brought out the difference within the Hurriyat to the fore, dividing the camp into 'hardliners' and 'moderates'.

While Geelani and Sheikh Aziz, Bhat, Mirwaiz and Malik are now labeled 'moderates'.

Earlier, Geelani had castigated Lone for his statement in Pakistan that foreign mercenaries should leave Kashmir as it was a political problem.

And now, with the Jamaat and Hizbul Mujahideen supporting Geelani, the rift, which he had admitted to in an interview to rediff.com, has widened, prompting the former APHC chairman to launch another attack on Lone.

'Abdul Gani Lone espouses a particular outlook which I don't subscribe to. Lonesahib's life is full of contradictions, in fact his very history is contradiction itself…' Geelani was quoted as saying.

Lone was not available for comment.

Interestingly, Geelani, like Bhat, said he was confident that his personal disagreements would not affect the APHC.

"The APHC is united on one point: to attain the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir," he told rediff.com. "That has not been changed in any way. So it [disagreements] will have no effect."

Critics, however, disagree. The APHC is a divided house, they say, and rifts will continue.

"Till it knows what it wants, it cannot move forward," says an observer.

The Kashmir cease-fire: The complete coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report