Is a New Delhi-separatist dialogue on cards in Kashmir? Centre seems ready | Tehelka

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p fashion=”text-align: justify;”>On September 22 throughout his go to to the Kashmir Valley, BJP Basic Secretary and architect of the PDP-BJP coalition authorities Ram Madhav stated the federal government was prepared to speak to all stake-holders with none pre-conditions. This was the primary time a senior BJP chief had come closest to inviting the separatist teams within the state for talks, albeit staying wanting naming them.

“We’ve stated from the start and we now have maintained that our doorways are open to all of the stakeholders within the state, they’re welcome to return and have a dialogue with the state authorities in addition to whoever desires to speak to the Central authorities, we’re open to a dialogue,” Madhav stated when requested by reporters if the Centre would maintain talks with separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Previous to him, Dwelling Minister Rajnath Singh had throughout his go to to the state delivered the identical message — although rather less explicitly. Addressing a press convention in Srinagar on the finish of his two day go to to the Valley, Singh indicated the government’s willingness to speak to all stakeholders within the state to revive peace.

“I’m keen to speak to anybody. I’m inviting everybody who’s keen to assist us in resolving issues of Kashmir,” he stated. “I don’t wish to go away anyone. I’ve already stated that each one stakeholders are welcome and anyone prepared to speak to us is welcome”. Singh too didn’t point out the Hurriyat by title.

Do the 2 statements between them represent a suggestion of dialogue for the separatist teams? Vaguely so. For one, not one of the leaders make a direct dialogue supply to separatists. Quite the opposite they throw the ball within the separatists’ court docket, providing themselves for talks ought to the separatists want to have interaction with them.

“What’s formal or casual?” stated Singh when reporters requested whether or not the Centre will formally invite separatists for talks. “I request everybody’s assist to revive peace and perceive the Prime Minister’s good intentions”.

Regardless of the anomaly of the statements, Kashmir is all of a sudden rife with the anticipation of talks between New Delhi and Hurriyat. That is largely as a result of some din created inadvertently by Singh and Madhav amid an ongoing all-out NIA investigation in opposition to some middle-level and prime separatist leaders for being allegedly concerned in funding the protests in Kashmir.

And this din is at variance with the Centre’s strategy to talks with the separatist teams till a number of months in the past. In Might, in its response to the Supreme Court’s question on the matter, the Centre had replied that it will solely discuss to the acknowledged political events within the state as soon as the state of affairs returned to regular and to not the separatists who operated outdoors the political system. However now the highest Central leaders say they aren’t averse to speaking to the Hurriyat, ought to the latter select to have interaction the Centre. What’s extra, the dialogue is sought to be “unconditional,” that means there will probably be no obligation on the a part of the separatists to speak throughout the ambit of the Structure.

Additional including to the prospect of the engagement, the joint separatist management comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik in a current assertion supported “a honest, significant, and result-oriented dialogue”.

Nevertheless, for the dialogue to return via, obscure statements by prime BJP leaders will hardly assist. Such oblique alerts may have little resonance with the separatists who’re loath to be seen because the sundry stakeholders in Kashmir and think about themselves to be the only real representatives of the political aspirations of the individuals. Nor would a normal and pro-forma supply of dialogue be enough for them to reply positively.

On the bottom, issues are far more complicated than what the statements of Singh and Madhav would reveal. Very similar to the discourse in New Delhi concerning the futility of participating with the Hurriyat, the separatists even have a longstanding narrative concerning the pointlessness of speaking to the Centre along with a profound sense of grievance.

For them, the fundamental difficulty concerning the dialogue with New Delhi can be what the latter is able to concede when it comes to a political settlement and the impossibility of such a settlement with out taking Pakistan on board.

So, they reckon that the BJP authorities in New Delhi doesn’t possess the form of open-mindedness such an engagement requires.

“We aren’t in opposition to talks. However is New Delhi for them? We don’t suppose so,” requested reasonable Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz. “They’ve gone complete hog in opposition to us, making an attempt to implicate us in false circumstances to undermine our legitimacy. However this is not going to succeed”.

Mirwaiz stated that they had acquired no feelers from the Centre for the talks, nor would they ask for any engagement within the absence of the “seriousness” that was wanted for such a dialogue.

Within the current previous civil society and political delegations have visited Kashmir to institute an engagement with the dissident voices and the Kashmiri civil society within the absence of a proper dialogue. The primary to go to was the Involved Citizens’ Group headed by former overseas minister Yashwant Sinha. It was adopted by one other group headed by Congress chief Mani Shankar Aiyer. And lately, a Congress delegation headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was within the Valley to carry consultations with the political and civil society teams.

Dr Singh selected to solely hear and never difficulty any assertion, nor discuss to the media. He let senior member of the delegation and Kashmiri chief Ghulam Nabi Azad do the speaking. However he struck a chord as a throwback to a time when New Delhi apparently tried to be delicate if not accommodative in direction of the problems going through the state. The previous three years of the NDA-led rule in New Delhi have stored Kashmir on the sting. The state of affairs has gotten worse with the union authorities withholding any political outreach.

This has lent significance to the non-governmental delegations that are additionally believed to be working in direction of restoration of dialogue. In actual fact, on his current go to to the state to attend a marriage, Mani Shankar Aiyer additionally met Mirwaiz and one other prime Hurriyat chief Prof Abdul Gani Bhat to apparently gauge their willingness to speak to the Centre. Aiyer acknowkedged this a lot to the media:

“I met Mirwaiz sahab and Bhat sahab. We mentioned dialogue supply of Ram Madhav threadbare,” Aiyar informed Better Kashmir. Nevertheless, he refused to disclose the response of the separatist leaders.

Mirwaiz, nevertheless, informed Tehelka there was nothing substantive that was mentioned. “It was a casual assembly,” Mirwaiz stated. “We talked about many points however not the talks. And please observe that Mr Aiyer is within the Opposition”.
So is there no hope for dialogue? “No, there’s,” Mirwaiz stated. “However solely when New Delhi talks for the decision of Kashmir, not for the sake of it”.

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