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| APHC leadership toughens stand to ensure political survival | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | May 22
The All Party Hurriyat Conference leadership seems to have moved from moderation to confrontation even while emphasising the need for resolving the Kashmir issue through trilateral talks.This has become evident when the APHC chairman
told a congregation in Srinagar on Wednesday that the Assembly or the Lok Sabha elections,which were being held in Jammu and Kashmir,could not be a substitute to
the peoples' right for self-determination.
On one hand the Maulana favours continuation of the composite dialogue process on the other he does not hesitate in intensifying the ongoing struggle for "freedom"If the APHC Chairman wants the venue of India-Pakistan talks to be rotated between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and between Delhi and Islamabad,he should have left it to the talkers to
discuss the issue instead of supporting either the right of self-determination or of trumpeting on freedom.Can these bilateral or trilateral talks succeed in resolving the Ksshmir issue when the APHC leadership is trying to set the agenda for these
parleys.This way whenever the two sides meet on discussing the Kashmir issue they have to discuss only freedom or the demand for granting the right of self-determination to people of Kashmir as provided in the UN resolution on the dispute. During the last
three years both India and Pakistan are trying to evolve some innovative ideas for settling the dispute because Delhi and Islamabad have come to realise that if either side sticks to the old stand the parley could break.
Unfortunately Maulana Umar Farooq has not been a student of history.He is indeed a religious scholar but his understanding of the historical events in the subcontinent does not seem to be as harp as of religion.He should have exmained the events that did not allow India and Pakistan to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir as provided in the UN resolution.In the resolution Pakistan had to withdraw all its troops from the territory occupied by it.It refused to do so and Islamabad's failure in implementing the mandatory
provision led both the sides to keep the self-determination issue in the cold store.
During the last several years the APHC leadership has not been as vocal on grant of right of self-determination to the people in the state as the hardliners,headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani,have been.Why then the shift?The APHC leaders have been very keen to motivate the Geelani camp to rejoin the conglomeration.In the recent past unity moves
initiated by Molvi Umar Farooq and Shabir Ahmed Shah had failed to win over the members of the Geelani camp.And when the Maulana made a passionate appeal to Geelani and others to rejoin the APHC he he dangled a carrot by supporting grant of right of self-determination which is a chrished dream of Syed Ali Shah.
Sources in the separatist camp indicate that Syed Ali Shah Geelani may not be tempted by the carrot dangled by the Mirwaiz even when the former does not have as much support from Pakistan as he enjoyed four years earlier.Islamabad had started sidelining him when he refused pleas made by the Pakistani establishment including,President General Musharraf, for forging unity by rejoining the APHC.Islamabad felt
uncomfortable when Geelani blamed it for giving weightage to trade and travel instead to the settlement of the Kashmir issue and the leader of the group of hardliners felt agitated when Islamabad granted recognition to the APHC leaders as peoples'representatives when the Hurriyat leaders visited Islamabad two years ago. If the Maulana has toughned his stand it is part of a strategy to remove the stain of being Indian agents which the APHC leaders had earned by pleading for resumption of dialogue with the Government of India.The APHC leaders know that they may be forced to shut their shop if they do not add pepper to their slogans and statements and lose support from official agencies across the LoC. |
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