Geelani advocates ‘conditional unity’ among separatists

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani Wednesday appealed to all the separatist groups to forge unity to “defeat New Delhi’s moves aimed at suppressing the Kashmir movement.” However, Geelani set several conditions for unity including staying away from “meaningless” bilateral or trilateral talks, elections or favouring out-of-box solutions for the Kashmir issue.

Geelani took the decision after chairing a meeting of the conglomerate’s Executive Council (Majlis-e-Shoora).
“It is high time to forge unity among the pro-freedom organizations to jointly defeat moves of India to suppress the ongoing Kashmir movement,” Geelani told Greater Kashmir after the meeting.  Greater Kashmir had Wednesday reported that deliberations are on between various separatist organizations to forge unity with “like-minded” parties.
Elaborating, Geelani said, “The doors of Hurriyat Conference are open for any person, organization or any forum that will assure not to accept any four-point formula, soft borders, status-quo or any other out-of-box solution to the Kashmir dispute.”
“These persons or parties cannot take part in any bilateral or triangular meaningless and result-less dialogues nor participate directly or indirectly in the election process which is held under the Indian Constitution,” he said.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a conglomerate of separatist parties and leaders, was formed on March 9, 1993 as a political front of the ongoing movement for right to self-determination.
Internal fissures within the conglomerate had culminated in a formal split on September 7, 2003, with 12 of its 26 constituents removing the then Chairman Maulana Muhammad Abbas Ansari and replacing him with Masarat Alam as its interim chief.
Later, Geelani formed the Hurriyat Conference (G) and his own party, the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. “This is not the suitable time to discuss the reasons of dissolution of the past unity but it is important to remind that this tragedy harmed the freedom struggle and it encouraged our enemies,” he said.
“We have no hesitation in saying that the unity among the pro-freedom people in the past got harmed when the agreed principles, constitution and ideology was violated and instead of paying attention towards the set goal, other options were discussed and attempts were made to implement those (other) options,” he said.
The newly-formed Hurriyat Conference Jammu and Kashmir (HCJK), a conglomerate of parties which earlier this year split from Hurriyat Conference (M), has expedited the process to bring “like-minded pro-freedom groups” on board to “effectively counter the Assembly elections.”
Geelani said in view of the past experience, “we are of the view that for the future unity, one condition is very important that any person or the party that will violate the agreed principles, constitutions or the above-mentioned conditions, will get automatically separated from the union and its membership will be termed as void.”
He maintained that no intellectual or conscious person will be against the principle-based unity.
“However for any kind of unity, the similarity of goals and course of action is a vital pre-condition. The conditions for unity are not aimed to hurt or degrade anybody but we want that the history regarding the past unity should not be repeated in future and we all should proceed with clear goals and unambiguous course of action,” he said.
The Hurriyat (G) Chairman said unity is unavoidable and need of the hour  “in view of dangerous policies of the Narendra Modi-led government on Kashmir and the irresponsible approach of the local pro-India parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party.”
Geelani said attempts are being made to change demography of Jammu and Kashmir.  “The fanatic and communal-minded people are making efforts to convert the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir state into a minority state. They are also trying to eliminate our religious as well as national identity in every possible way,” he said.
“We have formulated strategies to confront this situation. The extraordinary situation needs extraordinary steps at this crucial stage. Any negligence or carelessness of the nation will have serious consequences and it can also severely harm our freedom struggle,” he said.