Kumar Rakesh
Srinagar, November 8: The moderate faction of Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has expressed its willingness to talk with mainstream parties like the NC and the PDP to arrive at a road map to deal with Kashmir issue.
The bold assertions by former Hurriyat chairman and senior moderate leader Abdul Gani Bhat at a seminar in New Delhi yesterday has been described here as a “major policy shift with far-reaching political implications” by Kashmiri media even as PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s “endorsement” was a must for any common agenda.
Senior NC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Shafi Uri made similar conciliatory statements at a seminar, which threw as much surprise for comments coming out of it as for the participation of Kashmiri leaders of contrasting hues, ranging from Mehbooba Mufti to Uri to Bhat, state Congress president Saifuddin Soz and JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, who was heckled by some Kashmir Pandits, who accuse him of involvement in killings of Kashmiri pundits during the onset of militancy.
Bhat said the Hurriyat, NC and the PDP should work together to find a solution to the vexed issue and Uri very much attested to his sentiments and said the NC was willing to deliberate any measure which proposes a better road map than the autonomy plank of his party.
However, it was Mehbooba who virtually punctured the short euphoria generated by the show of grandiose intentions by these leaders and said any such united agenda was not possible without Geelani’s backing.
The octogenarian Islamist leader has always ridiculed mainstream parties and dismissed them as agents of New Delhi. Despite this, Mehbooba’s courting of Geelani is seen here as a mere political move by her party to occupy separatist space in electoral politics, as it has done so well in the last election by targeting Indian policies in and on Kashmir and by siding with the Hurriyat over several issues like its Muzaffarabad chalo last year.
Though Geelani could not be reached, a close associate of his termed her and Bhat’s statement as “political tamasha” they indulge in time and again. “Our stand is clear and non-negotiable,” he said. However, political sources said Mirwaiz faction’s softening attitude, if it lasts, could bode well for the peace process.
[Tribune News Service]
Posted on 09 Nov 2009 by
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