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| Cornered interlocutors may put in their papers | | Good News For Jammu | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Aug 8: Chief interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir Dileep Padgaonkar, who attended the ISI/Fai-sponsored anti-India seminar in Washington D C, is in the dock. Radha Kumar, another interlocutor, who attended the Fai-sponsored anti-India seminar in Brussels and became a party to the anti-India resolution on Jammu and Kashmir, is also in deep trouble. In fact, both Padgaonkar and Kumar have become objectives of ridicule and contempt with people and political parties like the Congress and the BJP raising several questions about their credibility and virtually suggesting their dismissal saying they have "outlived their utility" by exposing their anti-India credentials.
However, it is the third interlocutor MM Ansari who has been highly bitter in his criticism - criticism directed against Padgaonkar and Kumar. It would be appropriate to quote verbatim a detailed report on the issue carried by a leading English language national daily in its today's issue. The story is titled "Time for interlocutors to pack up from J&K?"
The story reads: "They (interlocutors) were supposed to prepare a roadmap for settling the Kashmir issue. But today, with open disagreements among them, the three Central interlocutors are apprehensive of visiting the state and facing local media questions. Because one of the panelists, MM Ansari, refuses to withdraw his remark against his colleague, Dileep Padgaonkar criticising him for attending conferences organised by Kashmiri American Council. KAC's executive director Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested by FBI last month (July 19) for alleged financial links to Pakistan's ISI. 'The revelation that Padgaonkar attended an ISI-backed conference and Radha Kumar went for a similar one in Brussels damaged our credibility. In their place, I would've quit," Ansari said recently. In response, Padgaonkar said, 'When I was the editor of The Times of India, my sub-editors represented a spectrum of political views, from extreme Left to Right. But once the editor decided, it was the party line. We are on track and shall submit our report to the government.'
The interlocutors have cancelled at least two visits to the Valley since the Fai controversy broke out. The question being raised here is whether, owing to their differences and the failure to meet their objectives, the team has outlived its utility. In fact, even Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's interventions have failed to solve down their problems. Be it the timing of their visits or the places they went to, their political stances or even the amount of airtime hogged by each interlocutor, little they have said or done inspires people's confidence any more. For most people in Kashmir, the Central team is now largely irrelevant. This includes both mainstream and separatist camps. On their last visit here, the three weren't even able to meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Problem is in absence of a political mandate, nobody in Srinagar or Delhi believes that they matter; a belief sources say the interlocutors share. 'They are just waiting for the formalities to get over, just churn out some document and get it over with,' said a government source. The Congress has distanced itself from the panel, careful that the Fai-ISI link doesn't taint it. 'They were appointed by the Home Minister. They advise him. If this can improve things, I'll be happy,' said J&K Congress chief Saif-ud-Din Soz. From being appointees of the Union government mandated with providing a roadmap for Kashmir, to advisers to the Home Minister, seems a quick demotion. Radha Kumar said all is well. 'Conflict resolution isn't easy. The road is long and hard and as we have seen sometimes nasty. We are still working together despite the differences and shall complete our task,' she said. That "task" is beset with problems. A source said the team's general formula seems to be bending towards increased autonomy for the state as a whole to placate the separatists. This would make parties like the BJP unhappy. 'If a political settlement includes genuine devolution of powers to the regions, the demand for abrogation of Article 370 will lose its sting,' says the interim document submitted by the panel to Chidambaram. The separatists say it's a backdoor attempt to divide the state and will be resisted. But for all this the three will have to visit Srinagar."
The story is self-revealing and the author of the story just cannot be questioned because he is on the staff of the national daily with which Padgaonkar is associated even today. The very fact that the said leading daily has carried the story is an indication that the cornered interlocutors may put in their papers. The heading of the story also explains everything.
The news that it is time for the interlocutors to pack up must inspire the people of Jammu province whom Padgaonkar and Kumar never considered an important factor in the state's political situation. Everyone knows that these Valley-centric and well-wishers of Islamabad had rigorously excluded from the round table conference, held in Jammu last month, almost everyone who would have been in a position to put across their point of view based on the hard realities and explain the nature of the ongoing secessionist movement in the Valley. They did it deliberately to project and accommodate the views of those in Kashmir who stood for autonomy, self-rule, or even for independence. The report The Times of India carried in its today's addition has clinched the whole issue and vindicated those in Jammu who had denounced these interlocutors as "autonomists" or votaries of greater autonomy, bordering on sovereignty, and had publicly stated umpteen times that the "basic objective of these interlocutors was to force down the nation's throat a solution that would ultimately lead to the state's segregation from India and seal the fate of the people of Jammu and Ladakh and the displaced Kashmiri Hindus for all the times to come.
It is time for the Government of India to act and dismiss them. Their removal would be a good riddance. The nation cannot afford the handling of the sensitive Jammu and Kashmir issue by the likes Padgaonkar and Kumar. |
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