Srinagar: A day after Union defence minister Rajnath Singh claimed that the Union government had tried to hold a dialogue with Kashmiri separatists, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that he was “surprised” that the outreach efforts by four opposition MPs in 2016 was at the behest of the Union government.
This is the first time that the Union government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has admitted that it reached out to the Hurriyat during its first term in power despite taking a confrontational stance against Kashmiri separatist leaders in public.
Singh’s statement seems to be part of the broader move by the saffron party to appease the separatist sentiment in Kashmir at a time when some former and serving members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) have joined the race for the upcoming assembly elections, even though the organisation remains banned under the anti-terror law.
At an election rally in Ramban assembly constituency on Sunday (September 8), Singh said that the Union government had reached out to the Hurriyat with an offer of “peace talks” following the Burhan Wani unrest in 2016, which resulted in the deaths of several dozen Kashmiri civilians, mostly youngsters, due to retaliatory action by security forces.
Mirwaiz, who has been intermittently put under house arrest in the aftermath of the reading down of Article 370, said that the Hurriyat has “participated in every opportunity” of dialogue with New Delhi since former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time.
However, a Hurriyat spokesperson, quoting Mirwaiz in a statement on Monday, said, “No leader is in a position to take a decision regarding this (talks with New Delhi) individually,” while responding to Singh’s remarks in Jammu.
Singh, then the Union home minister, said that four opposition MPs – Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D. Raja, Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav and Rashtriya Janta Dal’s Jay Prakash Narayan – had tried meeting the Hurriyat leaders on behalf of the Union government.
Interestingly, Singh had denied the BJP-led union government’s involvement in the outreach by opposition MPs in 2016.
The four opposition MPs, who were part of a 26-member parliamentary delegation to Kashmir, had surfaced outside the Srinagar residence of the late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani. However, the Hurriyat hawk spurned the effort by shutting the main gate of the residence himself when the MPs reached there along with a motley of journalists.
The meeting with the MPs was scheduled to take place in the violent aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational commander Wani in 2016, when anger against New Delhi was at its peak. At the same time, the Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir was grappling with an internal crisis and public scrutiny over its handling of the mass agitation.
Recalling the events of 2016, the Hurriyat spokesperson said that Mirwaiz, who was then incarcerated at the Chesmashshi sub jail in Srinagar, was “surprised to know for the first time” that the reach-out by the opposition MPs was an “initiative at the behest of government of India”.
The Hurriyat spokesperson said that then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, in a letter, had requested Mirwaiz “in her capacity as president of People’s Democratic Party and not as the chief minister” to meet the visiting delegation of the opposition MPs.
The Hurriyat spokesperson said that Mufti’s letter was followed by a visit from All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi, to the sub jail, who informed him that “a delegation of MPs” wanted to meet the Hurriyat leadership.
“I requested Owaisi sahab to allow the Hurriyat leadership, who were lodged in different jails, to meet with each other and discuss the situation before deciding on talking to the government of India. We didn’t want to engage in another attempt at crisis management,” Mirwaiz told The Wire.
Mirwaiz said that he had urged Owaisi that the government should release all the separatist leaders, who were either under house arrest or incarcerated in jails, and allow them to decide on the offer of talks as they are “not in a position to take a decision individually”.
“Owaisi agreed to it and said that he will convey this request to the government and left. After that nothing was heard of it,” the moderate Hurriyat spokesperson said, quoting Mirwaiz.
The spokesperson said that the Hurriyat has repeatedly called for “engagement and dialogue with the political aspirations and sentiments of the people of J&K as a means of resolution” of the Kashmir problem.
“The Hurriyat has participated in every opportunity that was made available by the government of India, even at its own peril, and despite the huge personal costs borne by Mirwaiz and other Hurriyat leaders and their families. We firmly believe that this is the only way to ensure peace and stability in J&K and the region and prosperity for the people and not for any personal profit or power for Hurriyat,” the spokesperson said.
Mirwaiz’s father, Molvi Mohammad Farooq, who was seen as too soft on New Delhi, was assassinated at his residence on May 21, 1990 by gunmen believed to be affiliated with the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. A Hizb militant was convicted in the assassination case. Mirwaiz’s residence has also been attacked with firearms in the past.
Earlier, Singh, who is one of the star campaigners of the BJP for J&K assembly election, said that he had facilitated the release of “innocent and minor children” who were booked in various cases of arson during the civilian unrest in Kashmir in 2016 and 2017.
“People demanded withdrawal of cases against innocent and minor children and I talked to Mehbooba and urged her to release them. We did everything but the way they (Hurriyat leaders) should have responded, they did not,” Singh said.
