BLUNT BUTCHER / ANCHOR
JAMMU: Social media is agog with posts about Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani wielding more powers than so-called Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir. These are not mere speculations or wild allegations but actually, his writ ran large than any elected mainstream leader, not only in the State but in New Delhi also.
Geelani’s directions to Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir on August 8 last year are just tip of iceberg. He has been issuing diktats that used to be adhered religiously by the powers that be. Therefore, the directions issued to Deputy Commissioners in the thick of widespread Kashmir unrest last year should not surprise anyone. According to ‘protest calendar, signed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani as Chairman of Hurriyat Conference, instructions issued read, “Block all the roads towards and around Civil Secretariat, Srinagar, DC and Tehsil offices and ensure that no employee is allowed to join the duty (on August 8, 2016). The Deputy Commissioners are directed to desist from calling employees on phones and pressurizing them to resume the duty”. These facts have come to fore after NIA seized several incriminating documents, including the protest calendar, during raids on the residence and office of Geelani’s aide Divender Singh Behl in Jammu. Does this mean that the PDP-BJP Government was not aware of such brazen directions to Deputy Commissioners by the Pakistani stooge? And, if it was, what steps were taken to offset such dangerous trend? It is feared that these directions might have worked in the Valley of turbulence where the writ of democratically elected governments do not run anymore.
In 2011, during the tenure of Omar Abdullah as head of the National Conference-Congress Government, Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief Asiya Andrabi, detained under Public Safety Act that point of time, had been admitted and provided VIP room in prestigious SKIMS, Srinagar on the orders of its Director, despite having been discharged for being repatriated to Srinagar Central Jail. According to newspaper reports, Director SKIMS called for discharge file of Asiya Andrabi and recorded that the patient be retained in the VIP room of the hospital. Ironically, the Director had acted upon the directions of Syed Ali Geelani, who had shot three letters of recommendation on his official letterhead of the Chairman of Hurriyat Conference and President of Tahreek-e-Hurriyat. Despite being reported, the government of the time did not take any cognizance like the present dispensation, which ignored Geelani’s directions to Deputy Commissioners.
Is submission of successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir just a tactical strategy or ‘mainstream’s’ commitment to the illogical and illegal cause espoused by separatists like Geelani. He is being pampered by obeying his orders without raising any questions. This has encouraged Geelani so much that even the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) during the tenure of Dr Manmohan Singh succumbed to his threats, ignoring the sentiments of entire Jammu region. By a stroke of pen the MHA put at rest the uncalled for controversy over the issue of Dogra certificate by extending the benefit of height and chest relaxation to all the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh for recruitment in the central armed police force (CAPF). The routine order had been issued by the then Revenue Minister, who was from the Congress and from Jammu. This irked separatist in the Valley and taking cue from their diktats even the coalition ministers from National Conference almost questioned the prerogative of a Jammu minister to issue such an order. Kashmir was put on boil as if Jammu minister had converted the region as Duggarland.
Geelani had set a deadline of April 30, 2011 for revocation of the order issued by the State government on 25 March 2011. Well before the deadline was to be over, Manmohan Singh’s MHA came with a solution, saying, “”As the Central Government desired to recruit more persons to the CAPFs from Jammu and Kashmir, there is a case for relaxing eligibility conditions for all candidates from Jammu and Kashmir. The Government of India hoped that the relaxation of eligibility conditions for all candidates in entire J&K would be welcomed by all sections of the people of the State”.
This rendered the Dogra certificate irrelevant. Geelani had a reason to have his last laugh, which is why he has been calling shots unabatedly. But, with the determination being shown by the Centre, it will be a big guess to see the current campaign of NIA against money launderers sustaining. Geelani is involved in several cases and noose is tightening around his neck. Who will be the saviour for him this time around? (Concluded)
