NEW DELHI: After Kashmiri outfits Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) and Democratic Political Movement (DPM) — both closely associated once with the separatist umbrella outfit Hurriyat Conference — publicly denounced both the conglomerate and its separatist agenda and vowed allegiance to the Constitution of India, home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday hailed the development on X saying that the “unifying policies of the Narendra Modi govt have tossed separatism out of J&K”.
In his post, Shah said: “Separatism has become history in Kashmir….two organisations associated with the Hurriyat have announced the severing of all ties with separatism.
“I welcome this step towards strengthening Bharat’s unity and urge all such groups to come forward and shed separatism once and for all. It is a big victory for PM Shri @narendramodi Ji’s vision of building a developed, peaceful and unified Bharat”.
While JKPM — founded by IAS officer Shah Faesal after he gravitated towards activism and politics, even submitting his resignation, but eventually had a change of heart and joined back govt service — had issued a statement in which its chairperson Shahid Saleem declared that he or his organisation “have no sympathy for the ideology of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as it has not been able to address the legitimate aspirations and grievances of people of J&K”, senior DPM leader and advocate Mohammad Shafi Reshi, a former close aide of Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Geelani, too said he had completely dissociated with the Hurriyat faction led by Geelani for the same reason. Reshi, who during his tenure as DPM chairman in 2018 had distanced himself from Hurriyat (G) and any other separatist entity, said he was a bona fide Indian citizen committed to supremacy of the Indian Constitution.
Shah’s statement that separatism had been tossed out from J&K comes days after he, while replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha, declared that 14 separatist constituents working under the Hurriyat umbrella had been banned as “unlawful associations” under UAPA by the Modi govt and its top leaders jailed in either Srinagar or Delhi. “The existence of Hurriyat has been wiped off….there was a time (prior to 2014) when talks were held with Hurriyat….it was made a mediator in talks with Pakistan and terrorist groups. We have put a stop to all this and buried the Hurriyat deep in the ground,” he told the House.
