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| Good Governance Not Autonomy or Self Rule to be main theme of RTC | | | Jammu, April 23,
Though the third roundtable Conference, being held in Delhi on Tuesday, is to deliberate on the recommendations of four working Groups, constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the cherished idea of greater autonomy of National Conference and that of the PDP’s self-rule may be placed on the backburner because the recommendations of the fifth working group on centre-state relations has not submitted its recommendations to the Government.
However, leaders from the National Conference and the PDP may not miss an opportunity in raising these demands besides it Mufti Mohd.Sayeed is likely to rake up the demand for withdrawal of troops from within the state.
The roundtable Conference will be represented by most of the leaders belonging to the mainstream political parties. The absence of separatists in the conference will be conspicuous.After claiming that the deliberations in the third roundtable conference, to be held in Delhi tomorrow, was not going to settle the Kashmir issue the All Party Hurriyat Conference leadership has rejected Delhi’s invitation for participation in the meet.
The APHC leadership decided to boycott the roundtable conference after it came to know that the conference had been convened to discuss the recommendations of the four,out of five,working Groups,which had been constituted by Prime Minister,Dr Manmohan Singh,during the second roundtable conference held in Srinagar in May last.The Prime Minister had set up five Working Groups for deliberating on economic development,rehabilitation of terrorism victims,trans-line of control issues,good governance and centre-state relations.
Explaining the rationale behind boycotting the roundtable conference a senior APHC leader,Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat,said today “we are for peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue and we have realized that the purpose of the roundtable conference was not aimed at resolving the core problem and hence we have stayed away.”
He said “we neither are interested in greater autonomy,nor centre-state relations and nor in development of roads and bridges.”He added “we want peace to be restored to the state and that can be done only through settlement of the Kashmir issue.”
In reply to a question Prof. Bhat said “it will be a futile exercise on our part if we sit with those political leaders whose views on the issue are already known.”He sounded bitter when he said that on one hand the centre was experimenting with series of options but on the other it had almost blocked the channel of “dialogue with us.””We had repeatedly requested Delhi for the resumption of Prime Minister-APHC dialogue but there was no response.,”he said.
Against this all mainstream political leaders have accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation and most of them were expected to reach Delhi this evening.Even the National Conference leadership,which had earlier threatened to boycott the working Groups meetings and the roundtable conference till situation on human rights violations did not show improvement,has accepted Prime Minister’s invitation to the roundtable conference.Both Dr Farooq,who returned recently from his trip to Europe,and his son,Mr Omar Abdullah,party Chief,will represent the National Conference in the meeting.Mr Omar Abdullah said that he had decided to attend the conference after the Prime Minister’s separate letter in which he had assured the NC chief that the Government would examine the matter and ensure zero tolerance towards human rights violation.
However,Leaders of Pakistan occupied Kashmir refugees,settled in Jammu for the last 59 years,and those belonging to various groups of Sikh organizations in Jammu and Kashmir have expressed their resentment on having been ignored by Delhi because none among them has been invited to the third roundtable conference.
Informed sources said that the roundtable conference was likely to accept,with minor amendments,the recommendations of the four working Groups that could set the stage for new development activities besides a comprehensive policy on good governance and rehabilitation of terrorism victims.
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