New Delhi Wednesday appointed three interlocutors — journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and government official M.M. Ansari — to hold talks with different shades of opinion in the state to arrive at a solution to Kashmir problem which in its current phase has claimed 111 lives and left hundreds others wounded.
As other items on the catalogue of the eight point initiative, the appointment of interlocutors too has had no salutary effect on the volatile situation on the ground which refuses to calm down ever since June 11 when the unrest was touched off by the death of a school boy who was hit by a teargas shell on his head.
The weekly protest calendar of shutdowns and protests are announced by the hard-line separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is steering the current unrest and followed religiously by the people here.
Separatists, hard-line and moderate have not only expressed their disappointment at the “low-profile panel” of interlocutors, but also expressed their resolve that “they shall not be doing business with the interlocutors.”
Geelani has described the appointment of the interlocutors as ‘a futile exercise’ which reflects ‘India’s plan to only gain time on Kashmir issue’.
He described the development as “an open proof of New Delhi’s non-seriousness about Kashmir” which he said “was a big issue.”
The hard-line leader reiterated that ‘India will have to accept my five point formula for a forward movement’. Geelani has been demanding that India “accept Kashmir as an international dispute, release detainees, demilitarization and withdrawal of draconian laws.”
The moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq also described the “exercise as futile” and reiterated that his “group has always favored talks for the resolution of the problem.”
Favoring Kashmir centric talks, Mirwaiz said that although he “respected the interlocutors nominated by the center yet resolution of Kashmir problem needed firm steps and firm initiatives.”
The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik in his reaction described “the appointment of the interlocutors as a big joke with the people of Kashmir.”
Stating that “Kashmir was an international issue which has affected four generations of Kashmiris,” the “approach of New Delhi in appointment of academicians as interlocutors seems as if we have to open new schools and colleges in the Valley.”
Malik said “Kashmir has been the source of three wars between India and Pakistan and New Delhi should recognize its importance and initiate talks at the highest level.”
New Delhi’s choice of the interlocutors has even dismayed the pro-Indian parties.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said ‘the atmosphere of hope generated by the recent all party meeting in New Delhi and the visit of all party delegation has been dampened by choice of interlocutors’.
In a statement PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti said “though the three interlocutors are eminent and highly respected personalities in their fields” the PDP feels “their nomination for the Kashmir mission reflects a lack of appreciation of the problem at hand in the state.”
“By keeping the political class once again out of the process it seems there is no change in the mindset at decision making levels,” she said.
“Insulting” is how the chairman of the mainstream Peoples Conference Sajjad Lone described the appointment of the interlocutors on Kashmir.
“The appointment has once again trivialized and belittled the institution of dialogue and further eroded its credibility,” Lone said.
