[Reader-list] PROFILING GEELANI OR SLANDERING THE REST - COUNTERPOINT

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Much more interesting COUNTERPOINT to the earlier posted "Profiling Geelani" perspective.
 
Kshmendra
 
 
In GREATER KASHMIR of 26/09/2008
 
 
Profiling Geelani or slandering the rest
 
COUNTERPOINT

 

Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain has done his best to deify Geelani, but he must not forget the other part of the story, reacts S Rashid.
 

Dr. Showkat’s piece is less of an exercise in profiling Geelani and more in slandering other separatist leaders.  Only Geelani’s deeds can speak of his greatness. The author seems to have negatively profiled other leaders under the pretext of profiling Geelani.

 Geelani is an enigmatic figure but controversy will continue to follow the ageing leader whenever we attempt to profile him. To his credit- he is charismatic; he is a tireless campaigner, detests colonisation of Kashmir and is a good orator. On the negative is the naked ambition, selective morality, lack of accommodative spirit, absence of magnanimity, abject lack of leadership qualities and lack of argument. Geelani started his life as a government school teacher, was secretary to Maulana Masoodi and contested elections to the state Assembly for the first time in 1972, with Congress support. Thereafter he fought scores of elections- parliament elections, assembly elections, lost many times, won many times. He was unable to become the Ameer of Jamaat e Islamia and was defeated all the three times that he contested for this post. 

 Geelani’s biggest drawback has been justification of the follies of his past. His participation in elections is somehow justifiable while that of his rivals is not. When the armed movement started Geelani was an MLA and refused to resign until the last moment and instead launched a scathing attack on the militants, terming it as criminal activity. His late entry into the secessionist camp did not deter him from staking claim for the leadership and ended up starting an ugly warfare between HM and JKLF. This warfare was to become the single most important factor in depriving the Kashmiris of achievability and loss of clout. An alliance of Kashmiris always got stuck because of Geelani. When Tehreek e Hurriet was made, Geelani objected to Abdul Gani Lone’s presence and when formation of Hurriet was being debated, he objected to Umar Farooq’s presence. Even in the current reconciliation process he initially objected to the presence of Yasin Malik,
 Maulana Showkat, Sajjad Lone and even the traders. He finally ensured Sajjad Lone’s exit. 
 During Kuka Parrey menace, hundreds of Jamaat cadres were mercilessly killed by Kuka’s henchmen. An insecure Geelani suddenly found solace in the arms of Abdul Gani Lone and Yasin Malik. The trio became inseparable and moved out together touring the whole valley, desperately trying to counter the Kukka menace. Once Kukka menace started to ebb, Geelani too distanced himself within the trio. Geelani as chairman of Hurriet started the track two formal dialogue with the Indian state. When Professor Ghani was elected as the new chairman and the onus of continuing the dialogue fell on the new chairman- Geelani refused to support dialogue. Geelani had problems within his own Jamaat e Islami and was on the verge of being replaced by then Ameer Jamaat G M Bhat, but for the intervention of other Hurriet leaders.

 Musharraf initiated engagement with India and as a part of that process came for the Agra summit. Hurriet was conveniently sidelined. None of the Hurriet leaders except Yasin Malik objected to Pakistan starting a dialogue with India and excluding the Kashmiri leadership. Geelani was overwhelmed by Musharraf’s presence and repeatedly kissed him on his forehead. Geelani contradicted his own colleagues in the meeting and Musharraf went back happy with what Geelani had said. This particular meeting of the Hurriet with Musharraf, where Geelani repeatedly kissed his forehead was to become the start of exclusion of the Kashmiris from formal tripartite talks in the post 1989 phase.  Honeymoon with Musharraf and exclusion of Kashmiris from talks was initiated by Geelani. Geelani was fully supported by Musharraf when he broke the Hurriet Conference and floated his own version of Hurriet conference. Geelani even gave a call for day of prayer (youm-e-dua) for
 Musharraf. Geelani’s differences with Pakistani establishment or policies started only when they re-established contact with the moderate Hurriet. Geelani’s problem with Musharraf or Pakistan is not ideological. It is based on Pakistan’s recognition of the other faction as the real Hurriet. 

 Geelani’s current reconciliation process is again centred on a divide and rule policy. The wily politician strategically cultivated Umar Farooq and offered him a bait of sharing the leadership spoils between the two of them. Mirwaiz fell for the bait and virtually abandoned his moderate colleagues who stood by him when Geelani used to refer him as head of Advani Hurriet. 

 Paucity of print space, national interest does not allow me to dwell upon a host of other heart rendering issues. How deliverance has been made hostage to a leadership tussle of Machiavellian machinations of wily politicians and by virtue of which Kashmiris are forced to live in subjugation under a brutal regime. 

 Reverting to Dr. Showkat’s profile. His dependence on Hindu mythology and English fiction is indicative of a delusive state. Krishna is revered by the Hindus and I wouldn’t stoop so low to compare him with a typical street smart politician. Geelani is a human being like all of us, prone to human weaknesses and not a spiritual wonder as Dr. Showkat would want us to believe. Geelani stigmatizes people who fight elections and yet has no qualms in accepting pension from the state Assembly. Geelani exhorts people to fight on and yet has no objection in accepting medical expenses for his treatment. Geelani can meet the likes of DGP police Khoda, IGP Sahai, but if others even bump into them, they are labelled as Indian agents. Geelani Sahib recently issued a statement that he has been under house arrest for nineteen days at a stretch. Yet within these nineteen days we saw him at many political functions. He was arrested and taken to Gulmarg and on being
 released complimented the cooking facilities in Gulmarg, voiced reservations about the cooking facilities in Chesma Shahi. During Geelani’s incarceration for six or seven days about ten people died and the whole valley was reeling under curfew. Imagine the plight of any other leader had he been taken to Gulmarg and discussed culinary delights. Geelani has this unique way of concluding an argument. If you agree with him and treat him as your leader you are a Tehreeki and if you don’t you are an Indian agent. That is Geelani concept of debate and analysis. If he starts a dialogue then dialogue is the only way out. If Professor has to continue the dialogue, then dialogue is a sell out. If Musharraf supports Geelani- Musharraf is a statesman. If Musharraf doesn’t support Geelani- Kashmiris dealing with Musharraf are traitors. Showkat compliments Geelani for not tiring. Why should Geelani tire? The father in Shopian who lost three sons should tire, the
 widows of Dardpora should tire and those fathers who had to shoulder the burden of the coffin of their children should tire. At Sheikh Aziz’s fateh Geelani climbed the shoulders of his supporters and what should have been a sombre occasion was converted into a race of leadership and photo opportunities for the media. At Pampore Geelani addressed from a separate platform. At a massive rally of show of strength at the TRC ground, Geelani proposed his name as the sole leader to the lakhs who had assembled to register their protest against Indian presence on their soil. His speech tried to portray the movement as a puritanical Taliban style movement.

 The rally was doomed and what was meant to be a show of strength for the Kashmiris ended up on a positive note for the Indians. Comparisons have been drawn between the Iranians, Hezbollah and the Hamas. I could forgive Showkat for slandering the Kashmiri leader as he has done in his write up. But Hamas and others are role models. Please do not denigrate them. Let them stay as role models. They have practiced what they preached. They sent their own children to the frontlines and sacrificed everything they had. Geelani as per Showkat is governed by values not by space and time. Geelani is no Jallaudin Rumi who said that timelessness is my time and spaceless-ness is my space. The great mystic needs to be spared from being compared to ordinary mortals. And Dr. Showkat should not make the mistake of confusing rabble-rousing slogans with values. Showkat describes Geelani’s political journey as ascendance towards the Everest and compares the moderates’
 journey as excitement of covering a hillock. Everest cannot be conquered in a single shot. You have to cover a lot of hillocks to reach the Everest. Since Showkat is obsessed with fiction maybe he had Spiderman in his mind. But there is no Spiderman in real life. That is where the assumed relationship between romanticism and real life ceases to exist. 

 I claim no proficiency on Islam but I have had the pleasure of hearing a scholar discussing virtues of leadership who quoted the Prophet (PBUH) as saying, “he who seeks leadership does neither deserve it nor should it be given to him”. 

 We live in a conflict area and have been inundated with agency warfare. Nobody will ever know who was on whose side. There will be some who actually have a radical ideology by conviction and some who have a moderate ideology by conviction. If you have to look at traitors don’t confine your search to the moderates. States do not invest in only one ideology. The Indian state must have invested in both the ideologies. Some in the moderate camp who as Dr. Showkat says are tired, fatigued and status quoists and must have been cultivated by the Indians to ensure that the Kashmiris dilute their position. And the Indians must also have invested in and cultivated the radicals to ensure that the whole world opinion goes against the Kashmiris, that the Kashmiris do not come up with a achievable set of demands which could mount international pressure and also to have these radicals having a go at the real uncompromised moderates- slandering them and trying to
 erode their credibility. Showkat has shown contempt for leaders in the separatist camp without naming them- yet dropping subtle hints to identify them, and they constitute the younger generation in the separatist camp. Is the objective to ensure that nobody from the younger generation in the separatists’ camp comes up to lead the nation in the future? If all of them are as contemptuous as painted by Showkat, who is going to lead the nation in the future- Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who are so assiduously being nurtured and groomed by the Indian state. As I have humbly submitted- we will never know who is working for whom.
 
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