Srinagar: A day after Joint Resistance Leadership targeted National Conference (NC) and its founder Sheikh Abdullah, the main opposition party on Thursday said Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani was trying to “divert public opinion from the Article 35-A issue by issuing vituperative and misleading statements against National Conference”, as part of an “arrangement with the PDP-BJP government”.
In a statement, NC said Geelani should introspect and stop “selling the blood of thousands of Kashmiri youth to curry favours from the current political dispensation as interim relief in the current investigation into questionable and unaccounted financial dealings by his kith and kin – some of whom have been given custom-made, plump postings by the PDP-BJP Government as a price for his silence and biased anti-NC posturing.”
n a joint official statement issued from NC Head Office ‘Nawa-e-Subha’ in Srinagar, NC leaders General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar, Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani, State Spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu and Political Secretary Tanvir Sadiq said Geelani’s role in history has been that of sabotaging and undermining the heroic and indigenous struggle of the people of Kashmir for their political rights.
“Geelani continues to exploit the sanctity of the political sentiment to further a personal, prejudiced political agenda based on lies and historical distortions to occlude his own chequered and contradictory history as an Ex-MLA and a candidate for multiple elections ironically even during the years when Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah was languishing in prison to fight for the political rights and dignity of the people”, the NC Leaders said.
“Rather than personally issuing misleading and obnoxious statements against Sher-e-Kashmir, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah arbitrarily attributed to a group of Hurriyat leaders, Geelani should introspect and realize that his repeated attempts to bail out the PDP-BJP Government was a great disservice to the people of the State who stand united against concerted attempts being made to rob the State of its political rights and special status at this crucial juncture.”
“It was Geelani who provided cover to the PDP-BJP Government to extend the GST regime to the State when he issued a statement ‘cautioning’ the stakeholders from opposing this move in a veiled yet evident manner. The same Geelani threatened an agitation over the issue of imposition of property tax by the previous NC-led Government. At that time every issue he deemed fit was worth an agitation – even when such policies had no political or constitutional bearings. Now, as was the case with his arrangement on GST, it seems like Geelani has reached an arrangement with the PDP-BJP Government to divert public opinion from the Article 35-A issue by issuing vituperative and misleading statements against National Conference”, the NC leaders added.
“Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah’s life is a testament to his selfless sacrifices for the political rights of the State and its people and he chose to fight against tyranny and suppression while people like Geelani were members of the Assembly. Geelani’s factually incorrect remarks are nothing new but in line with his continued association with the PDP fuelled by a perennial and personal animosity with those who stood to side with the people of the State rather than succumbing to become tools and agents at the hands of those who want the Kashmir Issue to remain burning and unresolved. Nothing that Geelani says can take away from the struggle and sacrifices of National Conference over the decades”, the statement further added.
The NC leaders asked Geelani to clarify why he continued to contest elections post-1953 and especially during the years when National Conference chose to shun electoral politics to fight the illegitimate deposition of a popular, elected Prime Minister and Government.
“If Geelani thinks 1975 accord was treachery, then he is the biggest traitor for validating the erosion of the State’s Autonomy from 1953 to 1975 by being an MLA and contesting candidate during that time when the entire State stood united against these pliant regimes in J&K. Geelani continued to contest elections even after 1975 and did so until 1987. He was the last of the front-row Hurriyat leaders who renounced electoral politics and even opposed this path of resistance in communications with his erstwhile colleagues and was hesitant to resign as MLA”, the NC Leaders added.
“It is solely because of the heroic struggle of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and his farsightedness that the unique identity of Jammu and Kashmir remains intact to this day. While constitutional erosions between 1953 and 1975 through pliant regimes and legislators have robbed the State of various features of its autonomy during a period when Geelani was an MLA, National Conference unlike Geelani chose prisons over compromise and fought for not only the protection of our autonomy but also its full restoration to the pre-1953 status – which was the basis of the agreement in 1975.”
“It is none other than Geelani who has ridiculed the State’s special status time and again and gone to the extent of opposing the restoration of the State’s autonomy – giving successive governments in New Delhi a reason to ignore the struggle of the people. If Geelani has done this at the behest of covert institutions or based on his own personal vendetta and agenda is a question that only he can and should answer”, the NC leaders said.
“Geelani Sahab’s perception that everyone in Kashmir except him is accountable and answerable is a delusion. He is answerable for asking for invaluable and unimaginable sacrifices from the people while choosing to shun all possible opportunities to deliver tangible and practical results to resolve the conflict.
“It has become clear beyond any doubt that Geelani is fighting for his own political image and purely personal agenda rather than working towards a just and fair resolution of the conflict. If the current revelations of financial dealings involving his immediate family are true, it will prove that Geelani’s investment in the conflict is self-serving and self-seeking at a blood-soaked, devastating cost to the common people”, the NC leaders added in the statement issued from Party Head Office.
