How influential is the Hurriyat (G) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. In Kashmir, he may make it to the top in a list of most influential political leaders.
He is most heavy weight separatist, who takes up most of the political space, and gives a tough time to unionist politicians too. The most aged leader on Kashmir’s political scene has youngest supporters on the streets of Kashmir. But that is Kashmir. And nobody assumed Geelani to hold influence beyond the Valley frontiers.
But this week, as a New Delhi based influential men’s magazine launched a list of 51 influential Indian men on its website, Geelani was a surprise entrant.
Mensxp asked its readers to vote and rate the nominations in different categories. Geelani was included in the political category along with heavy weight Indian politicians, which included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The voting is still open, but the surprising element has been the rating of Geelani, who has so far topped the list with an Average score of 9.4 points.
Prime Minister Singh is a distant runner up with 6 points. Geelani’s page seems to be the most shared one on social networking site Facebook. There are a number of comments left mostly by Kashmir readers hailing Geelani as a leader.
