‘Geelani helping India’s cause’

‘Geelani helping India’s cause’

Sajad Lone surprised many in Kashmir when he announced to contest the Parliamentary elections in 2009. According to him, the move to join the mainstream ranks was a strategic one, which will help him in achieving his goal through legitimate institutions of India.

In an exclusive interview with RISING KASHMIR reporter, Mansoor Altaf, Chairman People's Conference talks about his decision to join the mainstream politics and the relevance of separatists in Kashmir. Excerpts:

What forced you to contest parliamentary elections in May 2009 and join the Mainstream camp? Any specific reason.

I joined Mainstream politics in order to legitimise a forum which in the eyes of Indian state is illegitimate. I wanted to represent a legitimate institution in Indian Parliament.
I thought it as a part of strategy and participate in a finer way so that I can voice what I stand for. Even if I didn’t get the chance yet whatever number of votes I got would be an indicator of my representation.

Are you saying that you wanted to legitimatise your representation?

No, I said I wanted to use the legitimate institutions of Indian state.

Does that mean that the separatist are illegitimate in the eyes of Indian state?

I don’t think they are relevant in any way. If the Indian state would have found the separatists legitimate, they would have accepted their demands.
If Amarnath land row had not have taken place, would you have contested the assembly elections?
With hand on my heart, I wouldn’t have contested the assembly elections.

You said that you contested Parliamentary elections as a part of ‘changed strategy’. Wasn’t there a need to change the strategy before Amarnath land row?

It is difficult to convince a person who has prayed in a wrong direction for 50 years and ask him to change the direction.
Something similar is going on in Kashmir from last 20 years. I knew what was wrong. But I didn’t have the courage. When you are awakened, it is difficult to stop yourself. I took a decision which was very difficult for me.
Don’t you think that your decision to contest parliamentary elections was paradoxical? I mean you father was first part of mainstream politics once then he joined separatist, he was of the conviction that mainstream politics will never help the Kashmir cause.
Whatever my father said I stand by that. He was also an ordinary mortal like all of us and what he said would have been right at that stage. There is something called dynamism. Things change, conditions don’t remain static.
How can it be paradoxical, my father has fought election, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has fought parliamentary elections twice. Election is too small a thing to compare with Kashmir cause.

Are you saying that the separatist camp needs to change their strategy to stay relevant?

I certainly feel that they should change their strategy. I don’t say they should fight elections, but they should understand and change their modus operandi vis-à-vis Kashmir issue.

What according to you should be the strategy?

Whatever strategies the separatists may adopt will only strength the status quo. Look at the National Conference and PDP; these parties have gained more power with the time.
The separatists owe it to the people of Kashmir that when people threw out those political parties in 1989, they were resettled because of the follies of the separatists. Their ideology is good, but strategy has been inimical to the Kashmir cause.

What could you do as a mainstream politician and not as a separatist?

Firstly I am a Kashmiri Politician. I don’t believe in mainstream or separatist politician title. I am a hardcore Kashmiri politician.
Although called as a mainstream politician, I still believe in my ideology ‘achievable nationhood’. I believe in that ideology when I was called a separatist. There is no change in my ideology, I still believe in achievability. But today I can talk about the grievances of the people.
I represent now both the aspirations and grievances. Meeting aspirations has to do with the resolution of Kashmir issue for which I have presented the document. And to look after the day to day problems and needs of people constitute grievance part.
I strive both for the political and economical empowerment of Kashmiri people, as latter is not possible without achieving the former.
When you contested parliamentary elections, you said that you will represent the aspirations of

Kashmiri people in Indian Parliament. What are those aspirations?

In my view it is my document, “Achievable Nationhood”. Shunning rigid positions and defining the situation by using economics, politics and psychology.

How people will know about what Achievable Nationhood is?

Achievable Nationhood is not a novel. It is like an idea, a thought that is discussed not by ordinary people but by influential people at national and international fora. One cannot expect people to understand the nuisances of a complex solution.
There is a school of thought who believes that you were never accepted in separatist circle and that was the reason why you contest elections. Is it true?
There is none in the separatist camp who has the moral courage to reject me. I share a good relation with all of them.

In January a senior separatist leader in a seminar said, “We have killed our own people”. Who were the people he was referring to? Some endorsed it as acknowledgement of truth while others discarded it as mere rhetoric. Your comments.

We need to come out of dream land. When the young boys picked gun in 1989, they were termed as ‘angel’, who had the conviction of sacrificing themselves for a good cause, yet all of them were not angels by any standard.
And the fact is that all those leaders who were killed, were killed by these non-angels.

As long as you were a separatist leader, the differences between you and Geelani were too obvious to ignore. What were the reasons for the discord?

I don’t know, I have no idea. Ever since I joined politics he is after my life. I was never in competition with him.
Geelani Sahib is a dream, India could have never imagined. Whatever he does is helping India. The hartal politics has caused more damage to the people of Kashmir than Indian state.

Aren’t you helping India by joining the mainstream politics?

I am not helping them. Geelani Sahib had accepted Indian constitution and now denying it. Personally I respect Geelani, but his ideology has no utility and will never be accepted.
If you’re not in agreement with Geelani that means you are not in agreement with majority sentiment.

We all know people in Kashmir endorse his point of view?

Can’t you see Geelani has become a minority leader? Recently he called for boycott of Panchayat elections, but who paid the heed.
Briefly sum up the journey you embarked on in May 2009?
Nothing has changed, my ideology is same. My politics is unchanged. I am propagating the same cause.
Being flexible will lead us to salvation. In 2010 we reached a pinnacle, and after that achieved nothing because there was no strategy. We have to transform the objective of sacrifice.

Has separatists failed to institutionalise the movement in Kashmir?

Separatism in Kashmir is relevant, Separatists are not.

[Rising Kashmir]