Five-member team meets Geelani

Updated on Monday, September 20, 2010, 18:54

Zeenews Bureau

Srinagar: A group of five leaders including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, who are part of the all party delegation, on Monday met hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his residence in Srinagar.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and three others accompanied Yechury when they met Geelani at his residence.

Earlier Geelani had refused to meet the all-party delegation that is currently in Srinagar.

Reacting to the high powered delegation's visit, he had said, “We don’t want an economic package, we want independence.”

Two similar groups of four members each are likely to meet moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and JKLF leader Yasin Malik.

T R Baalu (DMK), Ratan Singh Ajnala (Akali Dal) and Namo Nageshwara Rao (TDP) were the other members of the team that met Mr. Geelani.

The 39-member team landed at the Srinagar airport in a special plane amid tight security and drove through deserted streets to the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex (SKICC) on the edge of the Dal Lake to meet political leaders from mainstream parties and prominent citizens from the valley.

Though Chidambaram said the team, which visits Jammu Tuesday, had arrived here with an "open mind", separatist leaders in the valley where 102 people have died in as many days gave it the cold shoulder.

While Syed Ali Geelani, chief of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, had earlier refused to meet the visitors, moderate leaders Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik Monday said they too would not meet the delegation, saying it was "a façade".

Besides Chidambaram, the delegation also comprises Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal, who represents the Congress, as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah as well as Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Agencies inputs

I would have understood a delegation meeting sworn separatist Geelani if it was to give peace all the chance possible, to give a long rope to those who are challenging Indian nationhood. But our politicians are looking for compromises. If they are willing to compromise with separatists, are they not also contributing to separatism? In fact, this delegation is a farce. When the very integrity of the nation is questioned, there should be only one agenda on the table and that is to crush the separatists, whatever the cost. Here we find our silly politicians bent on giving respectability to separatists. Politicians are ready to hypothecate the nation in the alter of short-term political gains. And the electorate of India are ready to prop up such anti national politicians. Whom can we blame?

http://www.zeenews.com/news656416.html