Interlocutors peeved over Centre’s silence

Radha Welcomes Hurriyat (M) Delegation’s Pak Visit

UMER MAQBOOL

Srinagar, Dec 19: More than a year after submitting their report to Government of India, one of the former interlocutors on Kashmir, Prof Radha Kumar Wednesday expressed dismay over the Centre’s silence on their recommendations. “We can’t say that nothing has been done but we are disappointed by the fact that nobody comments, what is being done (regarding follow-up action on the report),” Kumar told Greater Kashmir over phone from New Delhi. Kumar, who was part of the three member group of interlocutors on Kashmir appointed by the Centre in the wake of 2010 unrest, said they would raise the issue of lack of follow-up action on the report with the government of India after the ongoing Parliament session. “Definitely, we hope to do so,” she quipped when asked what would be their next step.

Pertinently, the report was submitted by the group comprising journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, former bureaucrat MM Ansari and Kumar to then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in October 2011. Three months back, Padgaonkar and Kumar after undertaking fresh visit of the state submitted feedback report to Ministry of Home Affairs. Kumar asserted that their report is not being ‘ignored’ and some of the Confidence Building Measures (CBM) suggested by them were in the process of ‘implementation’. “They are not saying what is being done on the report,” she added. She, however, refused to divulge contents of the feedback report submitted by them to Centre saying that the Ministry has not consented them for releasing the same.

She said that they had suggested revival of 2004-2007 model of dialogue between Hurriyat (M) and both countries – India and Pakistan and added that the trip of Hurriyat (M) to Pakistan is a welcome step. “Let us hope that the visit of Hurriyat (M) yield results and peace process is back on track,” she said.

Pertinently in their 176-page report, made public in May this year, interlocutors have called for a review of all central laws and all Articles of the Constitution of India extended to the state after the 1952 Delhi agreement which also gave special status to the state under Article 370. The report also favored resumption of the dialogue process between the Centre and Hurriyat Conference "at the earliest".

The report also said that no more central laws and Articles of the Constitution of India should be extended to the state by presidential order. It also suggested that Parliament will make no laws applicable to the state unless it relates country's internal and external security and its vital economic interests, especially in the areas of energy and access to water resources.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2012/Dec/20/interlocutors-peeved-over-centre-s-silence-27.asp