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Geelani beats the system and adds
solace to 1984 memories
Zafar Zang Singh
 AMRITSAR:
Invariably every year, the June 1984 ceremony at the Akal Takht and
other places in Punjab is an all-Sikh affair. Prior to the Saka
Akal Takht, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale did make successful
forays in inviting the Shahi Imam, Farooq Abdullah and other Muslim
and Kashmiri leaders to understand and espouse the Sikh case and
they did it with flamboyance and empathy.
Over the years,
the mainstream Akali leaders have always toed the Brahamanical line
and never bothered to build bridges with other ethnic minorities as
marginally placed as the Sikhs. The Badal leadership never even
bothered to enlarge the scope of the travails of
Punjab
by inviting the leadership of other states.
June 4 came as a
welcome relief with the voice of Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed
Ali Shah Geelani telling conference delegates in
Amritsar that
the attack on Golden Temple was an unpardonable crime. Speaking for
13 minutes through cell phone, he said that, “it was my desire to
visit Amritsar for the first time to express solidarity with the
members of the Sikh community on the anniversary of the Army action
at the
Golden
Temple/ and Akal Takht. Though I have been disallowed, I express
full solidarity with the Sikh nation.”.
“I was impressed
about his steadfastness and conviction for the rights of Kashmiris
and others. It was his understanding of the Sikh issues that
prompted me to invite him to
Amritsar”, said,
Dal Khalsa spokesperson, Kanwarpal Singh.
The joint call
for solidarity and united fight against injustice and repression by
the Sikhs, Christians and Muslims may have upset the carte blanche
abrogated by the SGPC and the Badal Dal to do all Panthic activities
themselves, but it should be seen as a harbinger of a positive step
in the right direction.
A hypersensitive
government and its intelligence agencies, generally move into top
gear when two communities plan something together. They lose their
nerve. They again did so in the evening of on June 1 when the
Jammu and
Kashmir government placed the veteran leader under house arrest,
clearly telling him that he would not be allowed to be the chief
guest at the
Amritsar
conclave.
Not to be
outdone, the stalwart chalked the plan of speaking through cell
phone over the public address system and that is what he did by
speaking to the other Geelani, the
Delhi University
teacher, who was with him when he was being detained. As he was
aware that the government could stoop to any extent, as a back up
measure, his son-in-law and another office bearer of the Hurriyat
Conference legal cell too arrived in
Amritsar.
For a change,
the government had to eat humble pie.
11
June,
2008
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