Hurriyat hawk calling for poll boycott has brother in the fray as Cong nominee

Son of Agha Syed Mustafa, president, Anjuman-e-Sharie-i-Sheyan, a religious body of the Kashmiri Shias, Mehdi launched his political career in 1983 after joining the Congress. He, however, contested the 1987 Assemblypolls as an independent candidate in protest against the Congress-National Conference accord.

Mehdi’s elder brother, Agha Syed Hassan, is an executive member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. A religious preacher, Hassan is also vice-president of the Anjuman and believes the Kashmir problem is purely a religious issue. “I am on a mission of the prophets,” he says. “I am a teacher by profession. How can I be silent when the whole of Kashmir is fighting for their genuine rights?” he asks.

He claims people follow his brother only for temporary relief. “Whenever a youth is picked up by the security forces, people come running to him for help as he belongs to that camp. There is no other relationship between him and the people,” he asserts.

Referring to Mehdi’s charge of large-scale rigging in the last parliamentary elections that led to his defeat, Hassan says, “I told him there is no remedy in this system. They will not even let you get your due despite your pro-India credentials.”

Hassan’spolitical career has been full of contradictions. He even contested elections on the Janata Party ticket in 1977 and was fielded against Mohammad Yousuf Shah, now Syed Salah-ud-din and chief commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit.

How have these sharp differences affected their family ties? “We used to live in the same house but now we stay separately,” says Hassan “But even God cannot change this relation as it is a matter of blood.” Hassan is today working for establishing a joint forum of Kashmiri Shias.

Interestingly, a maternal uncle of the brothers, Agha Syed Mehmood, is a National Conference leader and a minister in the Farooq Abdullah cabinet.Such contradictions can be seen in most of the political families of Kashmir, whether in the pro-India or separatist camp. Iftikhar Hussain Ansari had been in the Congress for decades before he joined the National Conference government as Housing and Urban Development Minister. Being a staunch pro-India politician, Ansari’s entire vote-bankcomprises his family’s traditional disciples in north Kashmir. His cousin, Abbas Ansari, also a religious leader, is an executive member of the separatist APHC and bitterly anti-Indian.

Similarly, the Mirwaiz family has been changing its colour from time to time. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the former chairman of APHC, is an important separatist leader. His grandfather was externed from Kashmir for his “anti-India” beliefs while Umar’s late father was always pro-India and even aligned with the Janata Party. He had even organised a massive reception for Morarji Desai at his residence in downtown Srinagar.

The APHC is itself not free of contradictions between postures taken in public and personal lives. Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani is vehemently anti-India and believes all the constitutional ties between J&K and India are illegal. His politics is based on the belief that Kashmir cannot be a part of India in any case and hence advocates self-determination. But he recently married off his daughter inUP.