Kashmir's Hurriyat Conference - crushed by Delhi

The present status of Kashmir's Hurriyat Conference

 Kashmir's Hurriyat Conference - crushed by Delhi

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• The story: The winds of change flew across Kashmir since August 2019. The Hurriyat Conference, the political platform of separatists in Kashmir, was marginalised, and the Centre cracked down on its leaders. There may soon be a ban.
• Earlier bans: The Jamat-e-Islami and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) were banned earlier. Now, both factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference may be banned too.
• Story of Hurriyat: In 1992, when militancy was at its peak, the Kashmiri separatists created a political platform to support the militant movement and seek a resolution of the Kashmir issue. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) came into being, which was an amalgam of separatist political outfits.

1. On July 31, 1993, several separatist political, social and religious parties — with disparate ideologies but united by a common view that Kashmir is under “illegal Indian occupation” — made the alliance.
2. The idea was discussed in December 1992 at a meeting called by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (19 yrs), who had taken over as Kashmir’s head priest (Mirwaiz) and the chairman of Awami Action Committee after the assassination of his father Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq on May 21, 1990.
3. The Hurriyat’s constitution describes it as a union of political, social and religious parties of J&K, to wage a “peaceful struggle” for resolution of the Kashmir dispute, according to UN resolutions or through tripartite talks – among India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
4. In the 1987 Assembly elections, several social, religious and political parties had joined hands under the banner of Muslim United Front (MUF) to oppose the National Conference-Congress combine. The elections were considered rigged, and a civilian and militant movement started.

• How it is run: The Hurriyat had a two-tier structure: an executive council of seven members, and a general council of close to two dozen members. The Hurriyat constitution didn’t allow any change in the executive council but permitted increasing or decreasing the numbers in the general council.

1. The executive council was represented by Jamat-e-Islami, a socio-religious outfit that supported Kashmir’s integration with Pakistan; Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, a pro-Independence militant outfit that declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1994 to work for peaceful solution; People’s Conference, a political party founded by Abdul Gani Lone who was assassinated by militants in 2002; Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s Awami Action Committee; Ittehadul Muslimeen of Shia cleric Abbas Ansari; People’s League led by Sheikh Abdul Aziz who was killed when police fired on protestors marching towards Muzaffarabad in 2008; and Muslim Conference of Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, a professor who was terminated from service by the J&K government for “constituting a threat to the security of the state”.
2. The general council included trade bodies, students’ associations, and social and religious groups. Its numbers kept changing.

• Keeping it all together impossible: From 1993 until 1996, the Hurriyat was the dominant political force in Kashmir with mainstream political leaders having withdrawn. While the National Conference returned to the political scene during the 1996 Assembly elections, the Hurriyat stayed afloat with backing from Pakistan. But it struggled to keep together the disparate ideologies, from moderates like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone to hardliners like Syed Ali Geelani and Masarat Alam. In 2002, the Hurriyat split into Mirwaiz and Geelani camps. The J&K Liberation Front led by Yasin Malik parted ways with both factions.
• Talks with Centre: The Mirwaiz camp was in favour of dialogue with New Delhi while the Geelani group set a precondition that New Delhi first accept Kashmir as a disputed territory. In January 2004, then Deputy PM L K Advani hosted a Hurriyat delegation at his office. Both sides decided to meet again. The second round was held in New Delhi on March 27 that year. Talks continued with the subsequent UPA government. On September 6, 2005, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with Hurriyat moderates led by Mirwaiz. The next round was on May 4, 2006. With the Centre’s backing, the Mirwaiz faction and Mohd Yasin Malik also travelled to Pakistan on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus to meet the leadership in Pakistan.
• Geelani: The moderates’ =closeness to New Delhi and the absence of any outcome from the dialogue bolstered the Geelani-led hardliners. On April 12, 2016, six leaders parted ways with Mirwaiz and joined Geelani. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) raids on Hurriyat leaders in 2018 put both factions on the backfoot. In 2020, Geelani sprang a surprise when he dissociated himself from his faction of the Hurriyat, leaving the reins to his deputy Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai who died in custody in Jammu jail earlier this year. The NIA raids, the ban on Jamat-e-Islami, and the arrest of most of the top and second-rung leadership of both factions, before the abrogation of J&K’s special status on August 5, 2019, have left the Hurriyat in disarray. It's on a deathbed now.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the structure of the Hurriyat conference in Kashmir. Why did it come into being? (2) The role of Hurriyat moderates in trying to eke out a compromise position with India via negotiations, largely failed. Why? (3) Comment on the present political situation in Kashmir. What direction has it taken? Explain.
  

#Polity #Kashmir #Hurriyat

 

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