New Delhi: As the momentum for beginning talks between the separatists and
representatives of the Jammu and Kashmir is picking up, efforts are on to find an
interlocutor from the Centre with consensus building up in favour of giving the
charge again to Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K C Pant.
Maintaining a low profile, Pant has been discreetly holding talks with the think tank
of Kashmir and trying to generate an opinion about starting his "Mission Kashmir"
afresh, informed sources said in New Delhi.
Of late, Pant has been holding closed-door meetings with state Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammed Sayeed. Though both of them have been maintaining that the discussions were
for allocation of plan funds, what was interesting to note was that none of the
secretaries from either side were present during the Sayeed-Pant meeting.
During his recent visit to the national capital, Sayeed again held a 30-minute long
meeting with Pant without aides and both the sides refused to divulge the points of
discussions and sought to dismiss speculation by merely saying that talks were held
only for fund allocation.
The sources said the Centre and the state government were silently working out the
modalities for beginning the talks as Sayeed has been emphasising the need for an
early exercise following international appreciation for his stand including that from
Britain's High Commissioner Rob Young recently.
The Chief Minister had admitted that the modalities for holding such talks were on
but ducked all other questions.
The government had announced Pant Committee for Kashmir in April 2001 but had to wind
it after very few separatist leaders came forward and held talks with him. Shabir
Shah was the only prominent leader who had held talks with Pant.
Hurriyat Conference had rejected Pant's Mission Kashmir by saying that "Pant was
fishing in desert and building bridges where there were no rivers."
However, the sources said the government was determined to go ahead with the talks
seriously irrespective of whether Hurriyat Conference was willing to talk.
The Pant mission had left severe differences within the Hurriyat Conference last time
and the government hopes that all moderate elements within the amalgam would be
coming out and holding talks with the new interlocutor keeping in view the growing
appreciation from the international community for holding free and fair elections in
the state, the sources said.
The government has already started discrediting Hurriyat leaders and also impounded
their passports. It is believed that the move had been taken after the amalgam
leadership
started taking the Centre's lenient policy for granted.
The sources said the government was determined to go ahead with the talks with the
separatists and would ignore all those who spoke parrot-like the lines fed from
across the
border.
PTI
