Separatists reject dialogue offer, refuse to meet Sharma or participate in ‘futile’ exercise
New Delhi’s representative for sustained dialogue Dineshwar Sharma is set to begin his visit to Kashmir on Monday as the region awaits some early progress in the latest talk process.
Sharma, who will arrive in Srinagar tomorrow, has already expressed readiness to talk to anyone “willing to talk to him” – that includes the possibility of talking to separatists.
A former chief of Intelligence Bureau, Sharma was named the representative for talks by Home Minister Rajnath Singh last month. Sharma, who had worked in Kashmir as Assistant Director of Intelligence Bureau in Kashmir in the early 1990s, is tasked to be New Dehli’s representative to initiate a “sustained dialogue” in J&K.
Since the announcement of Sharma’s appointment, separatists as well as an influential civil society group have expressed concern over the statements issued in recent weeks, including the interlocutor’s remarks about his priority being to prevent Kashmir from turning into Syria.
The interlocutor has so far remained silent about how he plans to move ahead in initiating the dialogue process and if any progress has been made in meeting the separatists. The tough task ahead for Sharma in the coming days will be to bring the separatists to the talking table.
The Hurriyat faction headed by Syed Ali Geelani in a statement on Sunday said it had been approached for a meeting with Sharma. The faction said a “state representative” had wanted to meet Geelani last night to “facilitate” the meeting with the interlocutor.
The separatist group, however, said “forced negotiations had no political or moral justification”. The faction said it had rejected the dialogue offer. “No section of the Hurriyat will meet designate interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma or participate in this futile exercise,” it said, placing a major challenge before Sharma.
An influential civil society group in the region had yesterday said that an engagement with the “nominated representative of the Government of India can only be meaningful if and when unconditional talks” are held with three key separatist leaders, including Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik.
Meanwhile, opposition party National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday described the appointment of the interlocutor as “nothing new” and said he had “very little expectations”. “Like it has been done before, he will come and meet people,” he said.
A former three-time Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah said New Delhi’s Kashmir policy had been “swinging like a pendulum”.
Govt must identify stakeholders: Karra
Srinagar: As Dineshwar Sharma is arriving on his maiden visit to Srinagar on Monday, the Congress has asked the Centre to remove the contradiction within over his appointment and come clean about the mandate given to him. In a statement, Congress leader Tariq Karra today demanded the government must make it clear whether Sharma was being sent to restore peace in the Valley or had the mandate to find the resolution of the Kashmir issue. “If Dineshwar Sharma’s task is to work for restoration of peace, then meeting police officials and mainstream politicians and stage-managed groups from different hues by certain police and civil administration officials makes some sense. But if he was appointed for resolving the Kashmir Issue, then it is imperative upon the government to identify the stakeholders first,” Karra said.
