The Hindu : A unified approach to J&K

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 24, 2003

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A unified approach to J&K

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI OCT. 23. The Vajpayee Government's decision to pitchfork the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, into formal dialogue with the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, the separatist conglomerate, imposes a kind of order on the Centre's efforts to engage with the secessionist constituency.

So far, such order or coherence has eluded the Vajpayee Government's efforts to reach out to various "actors" in the Kashmir situation. While naming Mr. Advani was significant enough, no less significant was the decision to retain N.N. Vohra as the designated interlocutor for Kashmir. This should put an end to various, formal and informal, some officially blessed and some self-appointed, interlocutors putting their irons in the peacemaking fire.

According to a number of participants present at Wednesday's Cabinet Committee meeting on Security, the issue of multiple peacemakers was raised in the context of the limited success Mr. Vohra has had so far. The consensus was that New Delhi would speak with one voice if the new initiative vis-à-vis the Hurriyat makes headway.

It was pointed out that in the past the Hurriyat leaders, individually and collectively, had been given different messages by different interlocutors.

The Jethmalani Committee, for instance, had created the impression that it enjoyed the political blessings of both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. As it turned out, Mr. Jethmalani was "disowned" by both. Besides the Jethmalani Committee, the Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office, A.K. Dullat, also remains on negotiating terms with the Kashmiri leaders. It was also brought to the Prime Minister's attention that in the last one week the Urdu press in Srinagar had been reporting that an old-time favourite emissary of the Prime Minister's Office would soon be taking over as the new interlocutor.

Most of the participants — many of whom were taken by surprise by the Prime Minister's initiative — came away with the impression that the dialogue with the Hurriyat would be on the pattern of on-going negotiations with the Naga leaders. In fact, this was the Hurriyat's lament that while the Prime Minister had interacted/talked with another group of secessionists (the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah faction) — and who at no point were asked to prove their representative credentials — a different yardstick was sought to be applied in Kashmir.

The working assumption after Wednesday's CCS decision is that after the initial round of discussion with Mr. Advani, Mr. Vohra would take over the detailed discussions.

However, should the negotiations hit a snag Mr. Advani would be available to lend a helping hand, just as the Naga talks interlocutor, K. Padmanabhaiah, periodically brought in the Prime Minister.

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