The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Tuesday paid tribute to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, bringing the deceased leader back into the mainstream discourse after the government tried to literally erase his name following the scrapping of Article 370.

Geelani, who died at 92 under house arrest in 2021, was mentioned in obituary references in the Assembly alongside former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and 57 former legislators andparliamentarians.

However, Geelani was remembered not as a separatist leader but as a three-time MLA representing the Sopore Assembly constituency. Geelani had won the Sopore seat in 1972, 1977 and 1987 before joining the separatist bandwagon in 1989.

National Conference MLA from Srigufwara-Bijbehara, Dr Bashir Veeri, and Peoples Democratic Party MLA from Tral, Rafiq Naik, showered praise on Geelani.

Veeri said they might have had their differences but Geelani represented an“aspiration”.

Naik said they were paying tribute to “great personalities” and Geelani was one of them.

The PDP legislator later denied allegations that he was being sympathetic towardsthe separatists.

Naik said talking about a “good person” was not separatism.

“We were never separatists. If there is one family that has worked most for India in Tral, it is our family,” he told reporters. “He (Geelani) was a human being, a good orator and a good legislator. That is why I took his name, not because of his separatism.”

Naik is the son of former Jammu and Kashmir Speaker and NC stalwart Ali Mohammad Naik.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah skipped any mention of Geelani but paid tribute to Vajpayee. He said Vajpayee had paved the way for peace in the Valley, and Jammu and Kashmir would have been a better place if his path was followed.