New Delhi appointing interlocutors on Kashmir evoked mixed reactions here. Coming after the all party delegation visit, which raised many hopes after the visiting parliamentarians in an effort to break ice met separatist leaders, many had hoped that interlocutors would be political bigwigs.
The union home ministry took a lot of time in announcing the names of interlocutors. The names of many political stalwarts made rounds. However, media reports suggested that nobody was willing to take the job. The three people finally entrusted with the job were journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and former information commissioner M M Ansari.
Many people in Kashmir saw the absence of a political stalwart among the interlocutors as non-seriousness of the central government. The interlocutors were appointed for a year wherein they would make small monthly trips to the state to assess the situation and report to the government of India.
The interlocutors hit a major road block when separatist leaders rejected the initiative and refused to meet them.
Syed Ali Geelani announced that he will not be going to meet them and asked people not to oblige the interlocutors.
Before leaving for Kashmir on their first visit Padgaonkar told reporters that though they have requests from many people for meetings, they would prefer meeting the youth in particular. “We have kept a full day …for meeting youth and students,” he said.
As Kashmir was on the boil and young men were getting killed almost every day, the team was focusing on understanding the grievances and psyche of the youth who were out on the streets for almost whole summer and engaged police and paramilitaries in pitched stone battles.
They have come twice since then. And made recommendations to the government of India. They made statements for releasing youth detained on charges of stone pelting and dropping charges against them. Even after Home minister P. Chidambaram made an announcement to that effect, the state government did not comply.
The interlocutors also ran into controversy after they made statements to the media.
The media and opposition Bhartiya Janta Party criticised interlocutors for saying that Pakistan had a role in solving Kashmir issue. The home minister asked them to desist from talking to media saying, it is interlocution and not a cricket match where you can give ball by ball commentary. Though the interlocutors have not made any tangible, quantifiable progress, the process is on.
