Modi may retain Manmohan’s Kashmir envoys

NEW DELHI: The three interlocutors, appointed in 2010 by Manmohan Singh government to reach out to ‘alienated Kashmiris’, are looking forward to fresh engagement with the  BJP government. Indian home ministry has already hinted that it would not outright junk the report. 

This has pleased the trio ?Dilip Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari?  has reasons to feel overjoyed as the government might send them for yet another trip to Kashmir, albeit with a new brief . Reports Wednesday suggested that the trio has hoped that Narendra Modi Government after examining the report, the interlocutors had submitted to Manmohan Singh, will come up for discussion, either inside or outside the ambit of the Indian parliament. 

The former interlocutors, expecting an extension in their earlier job, have welcomed the statement of Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju in which he had said that no decision had been taken on the report submitted by three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir in 2011 by the Government of India and it would welcome any “informed debate” on its contents.

The head of the interlocutor’s panel, Dilip Padgounkar described the statement of MoS Home as, ‘better late than never’. “It is a significant step forward towards the resolution of Kashmir issue. Our report needs to be discussed and debated involving all the stakeholders,” Padgounkar said adding that the statement was a welcome sign that indicates a positive mindset of the government.

Padgounkar lamented that UP government did not take any initiative in discussing the report. “Some people criticized our report without reading it as they were ill-informed. Discussion and debate will clear the air and will help critics to understand our report,” he said. 

Woman interlocutor Professor Radha Kumar said it was a million dollar question that how and when the government of India would initiate the discussion on the report, and with whom. 

“Though it is a welcome sign that government of India at least has shown readiness to have healthy and informed discussion on our report, but there is a need to turn this idea into reality. We have already wasted much time and now the time has come for action and debate on the report should be initiated immediately,” Kumar said.

Another interlocutor M M Ansari told reporters here that it was for the government of India to initiate the discussion. “Our report is first of its kind which has suggested a way forward as far as Kashmir issue is concerned. Time has come that this report be debated and discussed at all forums involving all the stake holders,” he said adding that ball was now in government’s court. 

Pertinently, on Tuesday while replying to a question by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju said, “the government has not taken any decisions on the report. Government will welcome an informed debate on the contents of the report,” he said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir submitted their report to the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in October 2011 laying down a road map for the government to address all issues pertaining to the state. The report was prepared by a team comprising noted journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, former Information Commissioner M M Ansari and academician Radha Kumar. This panel was formed after 2010 stone-pelting crisis in which nearly 120 people died.

The separatist leaders did not break bread with the Padgaonkar-led mission yet they spent nearly two years in Kashmir as “state guests” and networked with a host of conflict actors, including NGOs. The interlocutors had been “hired” by the Congress government against a hefty salary and a plenty of perks. They had had some noisy sessions with youth at Kupwara where Engineer Rashid, MLA Langate, fixed their meetings. They would meet NGO people, journalists and a loose band of “newspaper columnists” who would later write about them. 

Former home minister P Chidambaram was personally overseeing this operation. It was during these days that he said, ” Kashmir is a unique problem, it needs a unique solution.” He had also said of the interlocutors that they will change the discourse on Kashmir.  But the report they submitted before the Manmohan government evoked criticism for being “toothless”. 

“The interlocutors’ exercise was basically about anger management in Kashmir. New Delhi wanted to reach out to Kashmir following the 2010 unrest,” says senior PDP leader Naeem Akhter, while expressing skepticism that a BJP government would act on the interlocutors’ recommendations. “If the Centre was serious on Kashmir, the reports of the working groups on J&K, set up during the UPA’s reign, provided all the ideas for addressing the alienation in the state.”

Reports say, for many in the Valley, the interlocutors’ report came as a drastic climb-down from the ambitious objectives outlined by the panel initially. They had termed Kashmir a “dispute” rather than an “issue” — the official Indian line — and outlined a role for Pakistan in the solution, even indicating that they would recommend amending the Constitution, if needed. “This had made the Sangh Parivar see red, but in Kashmir, it imparted their mission a sense of possibility. But within a year, the panel had digressed from addressing political aspirations to tackling “social, cultural and economic aspirations” as well,” an Indian magazine reported Wednesday.

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