All party delegation meets Kashmiri leaders

The Hindu

Srinagar, 21 September 2010: With a thick security blanket in place to enforce curfew, a 39-member all-party delegation on Monday began the task of assessing the situation in Kashmir by meeting representatives of political parties here. Some of the delegates called on separatist leaders, including hardliner Syed Ali Geelani, and moderates like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

 

The Mirwaiz, in a memorandum to the delegation, said: “Let the Government of India act on the suggestions given by the Kashimris and facilitate to establish and empower an official body, a Kashmir Committee, consisting of senior representatives of all major Indian political parties to develop and enter into a process of engagement with the representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Let this process be transparent designed to deliver a negotiated solution to the Kashmir Issue that is mutually worked towards by and acceptable to all parties concerned.”

 

The delegation, headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, arrived here early in the morning and drove to the S K International Conference Centre (SKICC). Setting the tone for three-day deliberations, which will conclude in Jammu on Wednesday, Mr. Chidambaram told the visiting delegations that they were here to listen to their views and give them a patient hearing and reach out to the State people.

 

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram (second from right) with all party delegation members (from left) Arun Jaitley, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Farooq Abdullah and Sushma Swaraj during an interaction with Kashmiri leaders in Srinagar on Monday.

 

In a closed door session, leaders of the National Conference (NC), the Congress, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other smaller groups put forth their views on putting an end to the cycle of violence.

 

However, informed sources said most of the participants largely spoke about the resolution of the Kashmir issue and reaching out to the victims of excesses in the past three months.

 

State Finance Minister Abdur Rahim Rather, who headed the NC delegation, said: “We stressed on the restoration of autonomy as permanent solution to the Kashmir problem and also demanded that the Armed Forces [Special Powers] Act be withdrawn and a dialogue process initiated. We did not expect immediate results.” He said the NC would not reconsider its alliance with the Congress.

 

Pradesh Congress Committee chief Saifuddin Soz led the party delegation. “We stressed upon the unity of the State, which cannot be compromised at all. We also asked the all-party delegation to reach out to the civil society in order to get the real feel of the situation,” he said.

 

The PDP delegation was led by its general secretary, Mohammad Dillawar Mir. Its senior leader and MLA, Nizamuddin Bhat, said the party was shocked as they could not get adequate time to express their ideas. “We only got 15 minutes and that was not enough.”

 

CPI(M) State secretary Y. Tarigami told the delegates, “The current crisis is the manifestation of aggregation of failed political approaches to resolve the basic problem. There has been failure to develop and evolve a sustainable, result-oriented dialogue process, debates and discussions aimed at resolving the main problem rather than dealing with its offshoots.”

 

The all-party delegation also met various trade and industry bodies, besides NGOs and civil society members.