Post Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s demise:
Maltreatment of dead is against cultural and democratic ethos of India: Mehbooba Mufti
Srinagar, Sep 6, KNT: Peoples Democratic Party president and former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Monday said that the attitude of establishment towards Syed Ali Shah Geelani after his death and his family has garnered more sympathy and support for the departed leader.
She said people are feeling pain and are melancholic. “You can contradict with a living being and can fight with him but taking revenge from a dead is against the ethos and principles of democracy,” Mehbooba Mufti told reporters here in Kashmir capital Srinagar.
She said it is obligatory to treat a dead with honor but: “you can’t humiliate a dead and his family. You can have ideological differences with a man but after his death, you are supposed to honor him and fulfil his last wish. Geelani Sahab wished he should be buried at a particular place but it is unfortunate that his dead body was taken by force and his family members including women folk were humiliated,” she said adding that whatever happened was against the principles of humanity.
Mehbooba Mufti as per news agency Kashmir News Trust said that even a convict who is to be hanged is being asked about his last wish. “In this (Geelani’s) case, everything was done against the wishes of the dead and his family. Family was disallowed to perform his last rites. Contrary, a police case was lodged against the family members,” she said.
Mehbooba Mufti said that India is a great country that has distinct culture. “I think what happened is against the Indian culture, it’s democracy. World respects the cultural ethos of India. Everyone has right to express himself in a democracy. If you don’t agree with the ideology of a man that doesn’t mean you will take on him after his death,” she said.
Mehbooba Mufti said that on the barrel of the gun you won’t make people like or dislike a particular leader. “Anyone can like any leader in the world. You have seen, shops and other business establishments are shut though nobody has called for a strike. Shopkeepers closed their business despite threat from the government. It was a natural reaction. Even those who had ideological difference with Geelani Sahab sympathized with his family,” she said.
When asked the body of Geelani was draped in Pakistan flag, Mehbooba Mufti said that a former Chief Minister in India recently had wished that his body should be draped in party flag and not national flag. “For a big country like India, it is an immaterial issue. This is a huge and great country and such issues need to be overlooked,” she said. (KNT)
