Kashmir columnists begin to question Geelani’s ‘obduracy’

As the last Intifada death gets farther, scribes brace up to raise questions

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 22: As both, September 6^th (when J&K Police and CRPF left five dead and nearly a dozen injured in an attack on the newly appointed IGP S M Sahai’s cavalcade at Palhalan) and September 13^th (when 18 persons fell to bullets while demonstrating against a disputed incident of the desecration of holy Quran in USA) are fading out into the history, a small number of scribes and columnists have begun to raise questions with regard to five-month-long shutdown and stone pelting.

For five hot months of the year, hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani has bagged the credit of a mass mobilisation that, many believed, brought New Delhi literally on the ground over Kashmir. The octogenarian showed no mood of sharing the credit of Intifada-2010 with anybody in the Valley’s separatist camp---not even with die-hard Massarat Alam and Asiya Andrabi.

He enjoyed similar command and confidence even in Intifada-2008 when he publicly humiliated fellow icons of the “freedom struggle”, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. Without paying any attention to the eagerly waiting ‘Azadi comrades at the 50,000-strong Tourist Reception Centre rally, Geelani yelled as many as 10 times: “ham Pakistani hain, Pakistan hamara hai” (We are for Pakistan, Pakistan is for us). He signed off the event and left the dais without even shaking hands with the young Mirwaiz, whose father held Pakistan’s banner high in the worst of times when Geelani served in the Indian legislature, and Malik, whose JKLF pioneered the armed struggle in 1987-88.

Shedding of tears by the “moderate” duo resulted in a small healing touch. Word of caution and advice of sharing some space with the colleagues poured on to Hyderpora from unknown quarters. Within an hour Geelani called media to his home to rectify “an error”. Adding insult to injury, Hurriyat’s Big Brother played down his 7-minute-long episode of “only me” as “a slip of the tongue” (Sibgat-e-Lisaani). This year around, he got a bigger suppliant in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who sent his high profile envoy to win the detained separatist icon’s blessings at the Cheshma Shahi jail hut.

Even after his release, Geelani neither listened to Mirwaiz Umar’s advice of moderation not shared the “stage of unity” with him at Eidgah on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, on September 11^th. Much like Sheikh Abdullah, Geelani has not shown the trait of sharing credit. Now that the Ragda--- colloquial phrase for the crass form of resistance--- is over and nobody has died on Kashmir’s streets for Azadi in the last two-and-a-half months, Geelani is singularly at the receiving end of public criticism. He has been firmly arguing that 111 civilian deaths in the five-month-long stone pelting and shutdown have “highlighted the Kashmir dispute” for the world.

One of the widely read columnists, who also teaches at University of Kashmir and has never hesitated to wear his pro-freedom credentials, writes in an op-ed piece in a leading Srinagar daily on Sunday: “Yes Kashmir has been in focus all these months for the simple reason that it made news. Even a calamity-hit region hogs the headline and invites media attention, but who will bring home a disaster to attract spotlight. No dispute, that Indian military occupation in Kashmir is responsible for all the violence and mayhem. No second thoughts, that state crushed a popular resistance by force. No denying, that police mowed down the voices of dissent on the roadside as brutally as it has done in the past. But why do we use this huge monster of state oppression as a fig-leaf to cover our own nakedness.  Our blood is not that cheap to be offered for a mere news coverage even if it's global. Nothing is worth the life of an ordinary human being.  What we feel so triumphant about must be the moment of a devastating grief for all of us”.

“Truth has stung us always. Our failure or success painfully depends on the amount of blood spilt in the streets. What worries us, paradoxically, is not a life lost, but a life saved. Pity the nation whose people stay relevant as long as its streets are drenched in blood. The day stains are washed off, their relevance comes under question”, he adds.

One hundred bereaved families, out of 111, have so far taken home ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 Lakh each in just weeks of the local newspapers highlighting them as the ones who were ready to sacrifice other of their sons for Kashmir’s Azadi. Much like in 2008, there are now traffic jams of the days of “civil curfew” called by Geelani. The other day only, he alleged that commercial transporters had been “purchased by the government”. All government offices and educational institutions remain open and most of the shopkeepers now defy the call for shutdown, of course, without making it a public statement of India’s victory or Hurriyat’s defeat. This has brought confidence back to the scribes who were known for their cynicism and pessimism towards the separatist leadership, though not essentially entire separatist movement.

Shooting salvo after salvo on Geelani--- left, right and center--- editors of two local newspapers---one in Urdu, another in English--- have not only blasted Geelani in their own dailies, but have also made a well-circulated vernacular weekly their platform of attacking the separatist hawk and his methodology of carrying forward “Kashmir’s freedom movement”. Last week, Geelani called a full-length press conference to admonish his detractors, inviting them for a public debate over Intifada-2010 but only to the place of his choice.

“These writers have never penned a word against the atrocities done by Indian forces. We are fully aware of their history, geography and friend circle”, Geelani said about the critics while invoking the cliché insinuation of their being “India’s paid agents”.

Unlike the author of the op-ed piece, Geelani has an advantage over the weekly ‘Chattaan’ columnists. Both, alongwith the editor, have been part of two-decade-long ideological crusade against Jamaat-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen and Pakistan.

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