The Hindu : Jaitley begins talks with J&K representative

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 26, 2002

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Jaitley begins talks with J&K representative

By Our Special Correspondent

Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI JULY 25. The Union Government's designated "representative'', Arun Jaitley, had the first round of "devolution of powers/autonomy'' talks with Ghulam Mohideen Shah, the seniormost Minister in the Farooq Abdullah Government, representing the Government Jammu and Kashmir. Today's round was described as preliminary and the two sides are to meet again in the second week of August.

Mr. Jaitley and Mr. Shah had one-on-one talks, which lasted 40 minutes, while their official aides waited in another room. It is learnt that apart from an historical account of the quest for autonomy, it was agreed that the State Government would come armed with some "talking points'' at the next meeting.

Most observers believe that the "autonomy dialogue'' is not likely to lead to any resolution of differences between the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government as the Union Cabinet has already rejected the demand for restoration of the "pre-1953'' status. It is understood that the current dialogue is merely to provide the ruling National Conference a campaign issue. The National Conference had contested the 1996 Assembly election on the slogan of restoring the eroded autonomy and Dr. Abdullah resurrected the issue in 2000.

The very fact that a hardliner such as G.M. Shah has been named the State Government's representative is an indication that the Chief Minister is not looking for an easy solution. But the Vajpayee Government also understands that it is imperative that the Chief Minister is seen as taking on the Centre, after all these years of a rather cozy relationship with the NDA Government.

Even today the National Conference and the BJP continue to strike different postures. While the BJP secretary, Sunil Shastri, insisted that Mr. Jaitley was bound by the party's view that only devolution of powers, not autonomy, was to be discussed, the Chief Minister maintained that the two things were the same.

"How does it matter if you hold the ear directly or from across your head. Both are one and the same thing,'' argued Dr. Abdullah, while talking to presspersons after a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani.

Dr. Abdullah also told reporters that during his interaction with Mr. Advani he had asked for more security forces during the coming Assembly elections. His argument was that more security forces were needed to ensure a free and fair poll.

He challenged the Hurriyat leaders to take part in the elections.

"This is a good opportunity for them to show whether they are representatives of the people. The polls will give them an ample opportunity to prove their representative character.''

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