Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Kashmir remarks in his Independence Day speech—that the issue can’t be resolved with bullets or abuses—are “nothing but a well-scripted and stage-managed drama”, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani said.
Modi said in his speech said that “only a warm and affectionate embrace, not bullets and abuses” will resolve Kashmir. He also referred to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s formula of jamhooriyat (democracy), insaniyat (humanity) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri syncretism) as his government’s guiding principle for Kashmir.
“Personally Vajpayee may be a saintly figure for India and may have a liberal and realistic image but he has grown up and has been nourished by the Sangh Parivar ideology. His mindset and psyche is that of a staunch RSS follower as he basically belongs to this ideology,” Geelani said in a statement.
“In his tenure the mantra of jamhooriyat carried the same meaning and message of blood spilling of innocent people in the streets as is being done by the Modi brigade today. ‘Insaniyat’ we have been testing for the last seven decades and his slogan was as hollow and deceitful as of others. This myth and rhetoric of presenting Vajpayee with a more human heart which beats for the helpless and suppressed Kashmiris is being propagated in such a high pitch that even common Kashmiris treat him as their ‘masiha’and ‘well-wisher’,” Geelani.
“Had these words any meaning or reality for the people in the corridors of power in New Delhi, scores of our youth including the civilians would not have been crushed on daily basis. This paradise on earth would not have been turned into a hell where only death and destruction is seen everywhere,” he said.
He said, “Modi’s magical speech may be celebrated by his own people and his stooges anywhere but we Kashmiris have been witnessing their real face for decades and we are well aware of these beasts and criminals in the democratic veil.”
The statement said that “referring to Governor NN Vohra’s dialogue ‘gimmicks”, Geelani said, “Chief ministers, governors and other faces of Indian imperialism should restrict themselves to the job assigned to them and these mightier and gigantic issues like Kashmir are beyond their acumen and they should not try to poke their nose in these issues.”
“Converting the whole state into garrison, unabated killings and countless arrests, suffocating the whole population and then cunningly advocating the process of dialogue is nothing but a joke to be laughed at,” Geelani added.
Modi’s Kashmir remarks well-scripted drama: Syed Ali Geelani
