SRINAGAR: As the newly appointed interlocutor on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma is arriving on his maiden visit to Srinagar on Monday, Congress has asked Delhi government to remove the contradiction within, over his appointment and come clean about the mandate given to him.
In a strongly worded statement senior Congress leader and member of the Dr. Manmohan Singh led Congress Policy and Planning group on J&K, Tariq Hameed Karra on Sunday demanded that government must make it clear whether Sharma was being sent to restore peace in the Valley or has the mandate to find out the resolution of Kashmir Issue.
Karra stressed, if Dineshwar’s task was to work for restoration of peace, then meeting police officials and mainstream politicians and stage managed groups of people from different hues by certain police and civil administration officials’ makes some sense. But if he was appointed for resolving the Kashmir Issue, then it was imperative upon the government to identify the ‘stake holders’ first.
Karra while lashing out on the Union Government said, that in the name of appointment of interlocutor, the government of India was not only trying to befool and exploit sentiments of the countrymen but also attempting to mislead the International Community which has built tremendous pressure on it to open channels of negotiations with stake holders in the state, after Congress President Mrs Sonia Ghandi took a visionary initiative of constituting a high level Policy and Planning group on Jammu and Kashmir headed by two time former Prime Minster Dr Manmohan Singh.
A spokesman for Karra qupted him saying that the government was trying to befool and exploit sentiments of the people across India in the name of initiating a dialogue so as to save itself from embarrassment at international level by resorting to ‘non serious’ cosmetic measures saning ‘sincerity. He said the government had created willingly a huge confusion in this regard and it was still to clear who actually the interlocutor would rope- in for talks.
The Congressman said that BJP led government and the RSS backed BJP as party, were contradicting each other viz a viz, the task assigned to interlocutor. He said when Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced the appointment of interlocutor just two hours after, a junior minster in the Modi government sought to contradict Home Minster and said, there was no need of negotiations as there wasn’t any issue as for as Kashmir was concerned.
According to Karra, the contradiction went even sharper when few hours later, the official spokesman of BJP during a prime time show on Times Now presented a new narrative to the term ‘stake holder’ and said, ‘anybody who doesn’t follow the constitution is not a stake holder.”
Karra ridiculed the BJP for contradicting their own senior most minster and former Party President Rajnath Singh and said even Deputy Chief Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir State had his own narrative to offer, saying, “talks would be held with Hurriyat also but only with those who have been jailed by NIA.” The Congress leader questioned the motive behind the decision of sending ‘interlocutor’ to the state and said if Government of India can request Supreme Court to defer the hearing on Article 35-A in order to ensure an ‘impediment –free’ interlocution, why did not it held NIA back from raiding in Kashmir even after the announcement . He said the ‘mockery’ of BJP led government was at its high in Kashmir as it one side requests SC to defer the hearing but on the other side continue to unleash NIA terror to buckle down people for talks. He said such tactics won’t work and BJP government would feel more pressure in coming days both internally and externally owing to its ‘nefarious’ and ‘deceitful’ policies.
He also doubted the seriousness of the government on the exercise and said the intentions and seriousness can be well gauged by the remarks of a senior RSS Ideologue that “the appointment of the interlocutor should be taken as lolly-pop to Kashmiris’.
Karra further said that the government of India might have thought of further elevating Sharma to the all important Governor’s post and this exercise might be a prelude to that game plan. He added, that assigning the task of interlocution without identifying the ‘ stake holders’ might be to allow Sharma acquaint himself with the prevailing situation in the state before he actually possibly takes over as Governor
