So why would a figure like him refuse to even have a word or two with the Indian parliamentarians who dropped by obviously to see if Geelani could help diffuse the current tension in Kashmir. Guilty or not guilty? That must be intriguing query hanging on the head of confined Geelani.But the record must be set straight.The police has shut the main gate leading to Geelani’s house since god-knows-when. The poor man can’t pray in a mosque on Fridays. He can’t even step out to offer Eid prayers. Be it the current government or the previous one, his Hyderpora house has been turned into a sub-jail. Except for oxygen, the state has curbed everything for this old man of resistance. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, to a question I asked in a presser last year, conceded, “Caging separatists [during 2010 uprising] cost him dare in elections.” Journalists looking for interview are required to register their credentials on a notebook the police officials carry outside Geelani’s house.
So what would have a jailbird tell more to his visitors who had come for shoulder rubbing other than what was already known to them – his six point condition before any dialogue is initiated on Kashmir.
Of course guests deserve respect. But this was a political visit by uninvited politicians. They were already told not to come for what’re being portrayed in media as “peace talks” and Baat Cheet. The closing of door was a political statement. Geelani knows the pulse of people who’ve stone pelted PDP leaders’ cavalcades. PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti had to be flown to a south Kashmir village recently instead of a road trip. In reaction, people burnt down the house of the party loyal who facilitated her visit. Demonstrators even targeted Geelani’s son Nayeem for not adhering to the protests calendar. This is the current mood on the ground. So meeting the Indian team led by communist parliamentarian Sitaram Yechury – who had come without an agenda – would have only shifted the local anger against Geelani.
Also Yechury isn’t new to this visit. He made a similar visit in 2010 as well to Geelani’s home where he had had tea without milk because of the shortages. At the time it was Geelani’s call to youth not to burn what one local NDTV correspondent said were seen as “symbols of tyranny” by protesters in the valley. Geelani’s appeal bailed out the embattled government of Omar Abdullah amid killings and political upheaval. Indian TV news star Barkha Dutt airdropped to Kashmir – as civil uprising stretched for months – would extol him as “Geelani Sahib” in her reportage and “the only separatist leader youth really listen to”. Calls for peace were made from her shows. The status quoist Indian media regrettably sees the dispute an issue of Sunni Muslims. Indian media must not cater to their whims and fancies is the mantra to cover the dispute running in its seventh decade now.
Those “peace” calls were made when Geelani was restricted in a sub jail at Cheshma shahi. His appeal to youth – who were attacking police stations, state installations, checking identity cards of travelers in search of plain-clothed policemen – was heeded. The massive pro-Independence rallies ended up in a spectacular state oppression. The uprising, after 126 killings and thousands of injuries, was over. Soon the protesters were swooped upon in day and night raids. Hundreds were abducted and tortured. Houses were attacked by the marauding armed forces. Draconian laws like PSA (or Public Safety Act originally enacted for Timber smugglers) were slapped on the children and adult both. Armed with birth certificates and matriculation result cards, some parents would visit courts to prove their children were under-16 in hope to avoid harsh punishments meted out to the adult demonstrators.
The jails were full when the state gained control of Kashmir streets. Many youth fled the valley as police hounded them. Others joined police to avoid the reprisals. All this after Geelani called youth to halt protests. Many of the current stone pelters or armed rebels are those who saw 2008 and 2010 uprisings fail when they were eight or twelve.
In 2013, parents of Atir, a 19-year-old arts student in Sopore, told me that their son would bribe policemen with 200 rupees in hope to get less beating inside the police station every week. To the police he was among hundreds of stone hurling youth who had participated in previous uprisings and was often called for questioning resulting in torture inside the police station.
One morning in December that year, the villagers of Saidpora – 5 km west of Sopore town – woke up to the sounds of a gunfight that left five Pakistani rebels and a local militant dead. In their rage, the soldiers and police not only blasted the houses where the rebels had found shelter during the encounter, but also bulldozed and uprooted over 170 adult apple trees. The local rebel who engaged the troops in the gunfight before being killed turned out to be Atir. The arts student had refused to take more humiliation and decided to pick up gun.
Once bitten twice shy. Geelani’s appeal can actually rein in youth again who are ruling Kashmir towns and villages, organising mini-Tahrir Square-type pro-Independence gatherings, stone pelting soldiers who try to break these gatherings or burning the state symbols. But there is a general realisation that the Indian parliamentarian and the clueless state government of Mehbooba Mufti want the crisis to subside by again firing from Geelani’s shoulders. He did it for them in 2010, hoping New Delhi would offer political concessions and initiate dialogue on Kashmir dispute. At that time nothing happened. Geelani appears to be super-cautious this time around. It’s not about hospitality or much-abused or defrauded ‘Kashmiriyat’. It’s beyond that.
Adding to the suspicion, those who went to meet resistance leadership (Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Geelani) were not from ruling BJP or PDP. Indian Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh who led the All Party Delegation (or APD) conceded few days ago that Yetchury and Co went to meet the Kashmiri leaders in their “individual capacity”. This means BJP that represents New Delhi had no real intention to initiate dialogue with the resistance leadership in Kashmir. It was a ploy to essentially do nothing and subsequently blame Hurriyat leaders for sabotage.
Yetchury should be hailed for talking about turning the clock back to 1948 and not feeling insulted or disappointed by Geelani but the delegation he was flown with from New Delhi gave him no mandate. PDP also invited Hurriyat leadership for talks at party level when the invite should have come from the chief minister.
The government didn’t create the required atmosphere before the arrival of Indian parliamentarians. PDP jailed the stakeholders, invited them for talks idiotically and even got perturbed when one of the Hurriyat leaders refused to meet the delegation. What kind of peace talks are held inside prisons? Joke is that the current dispensation blocked Geelani’s press conference. The old man immediately emailed his press statement with a video message to media. PDP-BJP is still stuck in 1989 mindset when there was no Internet or social media.
Regarding Indian lawmakers’ visit to revolting Kashmir, these were not “peace talks” to settle Kashmir dispute. It was a delegation of lawmakers who had come to visit Kashmir and see people because there is a crisis that’s beyond New Delhi’s control now. There was no clarity on their mandate. The agenda was missing. They had only recommendatory not implementing powers. They were not New Delhi’s negotiators. There is a difference between sightseeing and peace talks. This one qualifies for sightseeing. There are modalities and technicalities involved when peace talks are initiated. This delegation lacked such nature. As discussed above, in 2010 too, a similar delegation’s visit and subsequent interlocutors report only ended up in the wastage of Indian taxpayer’s money.
Omar Abdullah, however, scores a point over PDP-BJP government. He had caged Geelani in Cheshma shahi sub jail in 2010 instead of house arresting him. making it smooth for Indian parliamentarians and the local officials to visit him.
This time Geelani closed the door because he could afford to. Other leaders were detained in jails or sub jails. The Indian team simply gate crashed the confined Hurriyat leadership.
New Delhi must initiate final talks on disputed Kashmir because it can’t manage the conflict for long. Militarily, yes but not morally.
Meanwhile, the news coming out of Kashmir is disturbing. Death toll keeps climbing. On an average 160 people are getting injured every day. Using war-weapons against civilian protesters for over two months continues unabated. Now the talk of bloodbath and pumping more military in defiant south Kashmir means the raging fires in Kashmir will not extinguish soon.
