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| Mufti-Sonia talks: Troop cuts high on agenda | | Mohua Chatterjee & M Saleem Pandit | | NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR
In a bid to cool tempers, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday invited PDP leader and former J&K CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed to a dinner after the UPA meeting on Wednesday.
The Congress chief has been keen on keeping her party's tie-up with PDP, which is in power at Srinagar, in place and intervened even earlier when trouble broke out between the coalition partners.
Sayeed arrived here on Wednesday for a meeting with PM Manmohan Singh on Thursday afternoon to discuss his demand for reduction of troops and withdrawal of special powers to armed forces in view of the improved security situation in Kashmir.
Ahead of the meeting, Sayeed said his party would not wait for a long time for reduction of troops from civilian areas of the state. "Every day counts," Sayeed said, shortly after arriving for the talks.
He was expected to be in Delhi on Tuesday and his delay was seen to be a result of his supporters arguing that he must not return empty-handed. It was suggested that he should, at the very least, wrangle a committee to examine his demand.
With reduction of troops in Jammu & Kashmir on his agenda, Sayeed said, "A small beginning matters and it has to be made," when the PM's letter rejecting the PDP's demand was brought up.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a defence function, the PM merely said, "I look forward to the meeting with him (Sayeed). He is an old friend of mine and I have talked to him earlier." About PDP's demand for troop reduction, the PM said he would not like to "speculate on such matters".
Replying to questions on whether the coalition was threatened, Sayeed said, "I would not like to open my cards like this... all I want the Centre to understand is that some modalities need to be worked out."
According to sources, national security advisor M K Narayanan held wide-ranging consultations on the matter. Though PDP has been taking a tough stand on the troop reduction issue, which chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has publicly opposed, both sides may not be prepared for a rupture.
"Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee chose Kashmir as the state to extend the hand of friendship to Pakistan... so similarly, if troops were taken out from the civilian areas, it will be a big confidence building measure between the two countries," Sayeed said.
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