Author: Masood Hussain
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 15, 2002
Introduction: Some call them Kashmir's
renegades. They know how to make the quantum jump from extremism to democracy
This is the story of those who
know the art of making a quantum jump from the separatist frontline to
the Assembly elections. They are better known as 'converts' in the mainstream
camp, even if their former colleagues remember them as 'renegades'. Whatever
the names be, society remembers their voyage from extremism to democracy
as one more of the many success stories of the Central government.
Take the instance of Abdul Khaliq
Hanief, the man who represented Jamat-e-Islami (JI) hardliner Syed Ali
Shah Geelani in the Hurriyat. His wife headed JI's women's wing for many
years. A full time it worker for 31 years, he was expelled from the right-wing
organisation in May following his pro-election stand. His stand had shifted
after a series of meetings, reportedly arranged by a retired Chief Justice,
with A S Dulat, an OSD in the PMO.
Post-conversion, Hanief is contesting
from Hajan constituency in north Kashmir. The three-cornered contest involves
NC's Mohammed Akber Lone and Mohammed Yusuf Parray alias Kukka Parry, a
small-time singer who switched sympathies in 1994 and hit global headlines
as the founder of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon, the main counterinsurgency outfit
here. His ruthless campaign against separatists was instrumental in making
the situation favourable for the two elections in 1996. Many in the NC
believe Parray's election to the state legislature was an acknowledgement
of his services.
In the case of Hanief - he is an
experienced hand as far as electoral politics goes. He has contested 1972
and 1987 Assembly elections unsuccessfully. But this election will be especially
difficult for him because he'll have to explain why he's joined the system
that he has till recently opposed. In Srinagar, he drives a brand new car
and shuttles between his posh home and Broadway Hotel from where he operates.
He roams the villages with a dozen odd faithfuls and draws a crowd of 100-odd
people in the villages. People listen to him explain how he wants 'to keep
the movement (separatist) alive but needs to get elected in order to offer
people a breathing space'. He says that given the assurances by the Prime
Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and with the entire world watching
the exercise, the elected representatives may get a berth on the negotiating
table when the Kashmir issue is discussed.
"Yes. I just heard him. How can
he expect to convince me when he and his colleagues in the Hurriyat have
all along been telling us that freedom was just around the corner. I am
not going to vote him if at all I decided to vote,' said Mohammed Subhan
(name changed on request), in a distant Sonawari village. He, Subhan added,
is a chameleon.
Hanief explains: 'I myself suffered.
I lost two brothers Gulam Mohi-ud-Din and Mohammed Sadiq in 1993 and 1998
to the hands of security forces and renegades. My six houses and five shops
were destroyed. I was rendered a migrant.' His changed his mind, he says,
after the global shift in stand following 9/11.
Then there's Imran Rahi, one of
the founder commanders of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, who came to the limelight
after his 1990 jailbreak.
A zealous organiser, Gulam Rasool
Shah alias Imran Rahi was jailed many times and eventually he decided to
talk. In early 1996, he along with four other former commanders - Firdous
Ahmad Shah alias Baber Bader (now an MLC), Mohi-ud-Din Lone (younger brother
of assassinated law minister Mushtaq Lone, now trying for a mandate), Bilal
Lodhi (contesting from a Central Kashmir constituency on PDP mandate) -
constituted a front and started negotiations with home ministry officials.
After two meetings, the initiative fizzled out as the officials were not
ready to delay the polls any further.
Rahi was the last of the four commanders
to get rehabilitated politically. A few days before the announcement of
dates for elections, Rahi founded an alliance and is contesting from Lolab,
the segment polls for which were postponed for October 8, following Lone's
killing. Shadowed by a group of PSOs, Rahi cools his heels in a single-room
office or his hotel room. Asked to recall how he'd once been the leader
of an outfit that made thousands of NC workers publish their resignations
for being part of the 'electoral politics', Rahi justifies it by saying,
'Yes. I was. But the situation has changed. I am telling people that there
is an emphasis on negotiations and not violence in the post-September 11
days.'
Rahi has had 20 public meetings.
He says the educated and well-meaning intelligentsia is ready to buy his
theory that he can do more for Kashmir if he's elected. But in Lolab, a
constituency with over 60 per cent illiteracy, there is nobody to vote
for him. Ask the people in Sogam, Lalpora, Tikkipora, the villages of Lolab.
'He is frustrated, but he does not matter to anyone,' says one. In the
same Kupwara belt, the Peoples 'Conference (PC) - one of the seven constituents
of the Hurriyat Conference - has fielded its candidates. They talk freedom
and ballot in the same breath but they are received well. These candidates
resigned from PC in a bid to save their parent organisation from being
expelled from the Hurriyat, which is against the Assembly elections.
