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Kashmir : Hurriyat leaders meeting PM today |
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The long-awaited talks between the Hurriyat Conference and the UPA Government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are finally getting underway today, September 5. The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq last week formally accepted the invitation extended by the Prime Minister for talks with the Government.
According to a statement issued by the Hurriyat Conference after a three-hour meeting of its executive and general council in Srinagar on September 1, the Mirwaiz will lead the Hurriyat delegation at the talks. Umar Farooq told reporters later, “We have to accept the fact that J & K is a complex issue and we feel that there has to be a genuine desire and urge on all sides to talk and deliberate because if you are talking about settlement, the only way to resolve the issue is through a genuine dialogue.” He hoped that there would be sincerity on the part of New Delhi.
Today’s meeting assumes significance as it signals the resumption of dialogue between the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre and the Hurriyat Conference after more than 18 months. The discussions come barely a fortnight before Dr. Singh’s meeting with Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in New York.
“The Prime Minister has been in touch with the moderate Hurriyat leaders through various interlocutors and has invited them for talks on September 5,” the Prime Minister’s media advisor Sanjaya Baru said in New Delhi.
Dr. Singh has maintained that he is ready to hold talks with any group that eschews violence and warned that his Government will come down heavily against acts of terrorism that disturb peace and development of Jammu and Kashmir.
After its recent visit to PoK and Islamabad, the Hurriyat had expressed its desire to meet the central leadership. Gen. Musharraf had also favoured sitting across the table with the Manmohan Singh Government.
The all-party grouping from Kashmir had held two rounds of discussions with former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani during the BJP-led NDA government which was voted out in May 2004.
Sources say that the Hurriyat leadership has conveyed through intermediaries that it will abide by the broad principles of seeking a negotiated settlement, shunning violence and separatist slogans, provided government too plays the ball.
The talk of Azadi would be replaced by the quest for Kashmiriyat - a secular political and social order. The return of Kashmiri Pundits, ensuring their security, would also be discussed. but for that, Government would need to do its homework and come up with a set of coherent proposals.
The unanimous decision of the moderate sections that met in Srinagar to accept the Government’s offer has enthused Government circles and the intelligentsia.
At the political level, it is not clear whether the UPA government would seek to project it as a continuation of what NDA government began, or as a fresh initiative. The next course would be decided going by the outcome of today’s meeting.
It is likely that further dialogue may retain a strong political element with Home Minister Shivraj Patil leading the Government side. This would meet the Hurriyat’s long standing demand that the dialogue should be held and retained at a political level. Political circles in Kashmir as well as Pakistan have welcomed the talks. Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed said that the Centre’s invitation is a positive development and will help promote peace.
The Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said it was their demand that the talks should be held at the highest level. But the hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that it is an eyewash and the Hurriyat leaders meeting the Prime Minister will at best be served tea.
The Hurriyat delegation attending the meeting is expected to include Bilal Gani Lone, Maulana Mohd. Abbas Ansari, Abdul Gani Bhat, all Members of the Hurriyat executive, and Aga Syed Hassan and Fazal Haq Qureshi.
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