Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Apr 18: As hardliner Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani claimed that BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had sent emissaries to him to go soft on Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wanted to know the reasons for secrecy of the talks.
“Given BJP’s position on Article 370 and AFSPA can we know who these NaMo emissaries were and what was on the offer’’? Omar asked on twitter after Geelani made public that two emissaries of Modi had met him.
“So Syed Ali Shah Geelani has claimed that NaMo sent emissaries to talk to him and other separatist leader in Delhi. It was twice in Geelani’s case,’’ Omar wrote.
Earlier, hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani today claimed that BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had sent emissaries to him and separatist leadership in Jammu and Kashmir to create a “soft corner” for him by making a “commitment” to seek a solution to Kashmir issue.
However, he said he has no hopes on Modi developing a “soft” policy on Jammu and Kashmir and rejected their plea for talks with him.
“Modi has started a campaign and is approaching people here. They have contacted the resistance leadership including myself which is indicative that he is trying to create a soft corner for himself within the freedom camp,” he told reporters at his Hyderpora residence here.
Geelani, who was placed under house arrest immediately after his return from Delhi on Wednesday, said two Kashmiri Pandits came to him as Modi’s emissaries on March 22 and asked him to talk to Modi “directly or indirectly” for a “commitment on Kashmir issue”.
“They told me that Modi is going to be the next Prime Minister of the country and you talk to him directly or indirectly to get a commitment from him on Kashmir issue.
Meanwhile, BJP tonight denied that its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had sent emissaries to meet Kashmir’s separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to create a “soft corner” by making a commitment to seek a solution to the Kashmir issue.
Rejecting such claims by Geelani as “mischievous” and without any basis, the party said in a statement in New Delhi that no emissary has either try to meet or had met Geelani to discuss the Kashmir issue.
The statement said, the BJP’s stand that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India was very clear and there was no room for deliberations on this.
The party had time and again condemned the negative role played by leaders such as Geelani “whose politics is a threat to the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”, the statement said.
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