by
Ershad Mahmud
It seems that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference is about to collapse as
its two key components -- veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani and
People's Conference head Sajjad Ghani Lone -- are trading allegations and
counter allegations. The bitterness has soared to the extent of accusing
each other of betraying the Kashmir cause. Interestingly, violating the
tight discipline, the controversy has been making headlines in local as well
as regional media. Newspapers have been finding so much spice in the row
between the two APHC stalwarts that the upcoming India-Pakistan parlays or
even the human rights violation by the forces are being dumped in the inside
pages.
The roots of the controversy between Gilani and the Lone originate from last
year's state assembly elections. The People's Conference was suspected of
fielding its two members as proxy candidates in Kashmir's northern district
of Kupwara, hometown of late Abdul Ghani Lone. The APHC had directed Sajjad
Ghani Lone to clarify his position on the issue. The PC leader had assured
the conglomerate of going ahead with the poll boycott decision. He had also
guaranteed the APHC to dismiss the violating workers from the party
membership. The Hurriyat then accepted the argument and did not expel the
People's Conference from the Kashmiri umbrella organisation.
For a host of factors such as pressure from the Western capitals, the
Hurriyat did not run parallel polls boycott campaign. Still, the state
government arrested Hurriyat stalwarts such as Syed Ali Gilani and Yasin
Malik and about 20 second-line leaders. Traditionally, these leaders have
always been on the forefront in all the anti-India campaigns in J&K.
Meanwhile, the Hurriyat also chose to talk on dispute resolution with a
non-governmental Kashmir Committee, led by India's former law minister Ram
Jethmalani. Jethmalani held a few rounds of talks with the Hurriyat in
Srinagar as well as New Delhi that were suspended a few months later as the
Kashmiri leader termed the exercise as 'futile'.
During this period Syed Ali Gilani was in jail and he had to gone trough a
surgery. Indian authorities had released him on health grounds. Soon after
his arrival in Srinagar, Gilani has been demanding action against the
People's Conference for allegedly taking part in last year's assembly
elections through dummy candidates. He has refused to participate in any
Hurriyat proceedings till People's Conference is not thrown out of the
Hurriyat. He even set a condition that unless this happened, he would stay
away from Hurriyat's executive meetings. Above all, Gilani convened a
gathering to establish alternative body at his residence. Hurriyat's apex
executive council did not heed Gilani's demands and told him to argue his
case before the general council and accept the majority decision. But he
refused to accept it. Similarly, Hurriyat appointed a committee to resolve
the dispute but that could not come through. Now both the parties have taken
a hard line and the gulf between them is widening by the day.
Historically speaking, Gilani and late Abdul Ghani Lone have always been
opposing each other in the Valley politics since the early 1980s. Lone was a
liberal Kashmiri nationalist leader and struggled for independent state of
Jammu & Kashmir. Lone and his party believe on liberal values. The People's
Conference still wants re-definition of the Kashmiri struggle in the changed
paradigm. Lone argued to reshape whole resistance struggle in the wake of
new ground realities. Over the last few years, Ghani Lone emerged a strong
voice of Kashmiri masses. Meanwhile, his relations with Islamabad turned
sour due to his blunt criticism of its polices, which could never get back
to normal until his sudden death.
Unlike Lone, Syed Ali Gilani emerged in the 1970s as a key political leader
from the platform of the Jamaat-i-Islami. He has been playing a significant
role during the 1980s and 1990s and still has an impressive following among
the masses. He is the only political figure enjoying full confidence of the
militants. He is generally known as a firebrand politician having strong
affection for Pakistan. His politics is based on religion and he terms the
Kashmir resistance a religious struggle. He firmly believes that New Delhi
would not allow the Kashmiris their right of self-determination unless it is
inflicted an unbearable cost.
Seen in this context, the Hurriyat leaders' row is rooted in their
respective ideologies and their different worldviews. Now the proxy
candidate controversy has become a personality clash between Lone and
Gilani. Although Gilani and late Ghani Lone have been bitter critics of each
other since long, both the leaders spent many years together in jail and
cooperated each other for about a decade.
Before going into the details of the consequence of the row, let's take an
overview of the Hurriyat Conference's decade long performance. The Hurriyat
is a unique experience in resistance struggles in the present times. It
incorporated all the shades of opinion in the Kashmiri civil society. It is
a loosely knit organisation with internal difference and contradictions.
Strangely enough, the Hurriyat has recently completed its 10 years of
keeping together different voices such as the pro-Pakistan, pro-independent,
and more interestingly with the liberals and fundamentalists in its fold.
Now the Hurriyat comprises of three major groups ie moderates, hard-liners
and centrist. Every group tries to prevail upon the umbrella organisation to
use it in pursuance of its views and interests. In such circumstances, it is
quite obvious that there would be difference of perceptions. But the ongoing
infighting has crossed all limits and reached a climax where public will
have to come out to get round the leaders. Otherwise, their sacrifices would
be wasted -- just because of unreliable and myopic leadership.
Diplomatically specking, it is a known fact that the Hurriyat has been
recognised as a Kashmiri forum that has been playing a very important role
at the international level since its inception. Certainly, it has a big role
to play in the days ahead specifically in the forthcoming dialogue process
between Islamabad and New Delhi. All the international fora and capitals
have admitted that the Hurriyat as a representative voice of pro-freedom
people of Kashmir. Even, New Delhi itself does not denounce the fact that
the Hurriyat is representing the popular aspirations of the Kashmiris.
Strangely enough, the Hurriyat leadership and its sympathisers could not
play any positive role to defuse the tension in its ranks. One can rather
guess that they just saw the game and enjoyed it. Even the Hurriyat could
not call on a special session to deliberate on the pressing issue. In this
backdrop, the big question arises as to what is the way out? If the leaders
continue their blame game then the Hurriyat will soon be dying, thus leaving
the Kashmiri people on the crossroads once more.
A section of the Pakistan establishment is pressing the government to take a
U-turn on Kashmir as Washington's pressure has become unbearable. The
proponents of 'Pakistan first doctrine' advice Islamabad to forget Srinagar
for the time being and focus on stabilising the economy. Doubtlessly, the
argument is gaining ground. Differences in the rank and file of the
resistance movement, particularly in the Hurriyat, make this lobby's point
of view stronger. If Islamabad withdraws its support to the Kashmir cause
for the time being as being suggested by the influential Musharraf aides,
will the divided Kashmiri leadership be ready to face the consequences?
