Former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has called for opening a dialogue between various stakeholders in Kashmir now rather than the “talks after two to three months” window suggested by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Speaking to The Hindu , Mr Habibullah, who was a member of a committee of concerned citizens who visited Kashmir in the aftermath of the violence following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani last year, said talks were a matter of urgency at this time.
Including Hurriyat
“If the things are normal then what will the talks be for? You have to initiate talks to bring things to normal... That’s what the talks should be for. I haven’t spoken to Mehboobaji after the citizens group went and met her, so I can’t tell you what the implications of her meetings here are, but my own feeling would be that you must open dialogue with various stakeholders including the Hurriyat and several sections of Kashmiri society in help resolve the problem,” he said, adding, “You have to open a dialogue with those who have a problem; there is no point in talking to those who don’t have a problem.”
After her meeting earlier this week with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ms Mufti had said the situation in the State could improve in two to three months and the dialogue process should be started thereafter.
Vajpayee initiative
Mr Habibullah, who, as a serving bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir in the1990s was the chief negotiator on behalf of the Indian government during the siege of the Hazrat Bal shrine in Srinagar, said that talking to the Hurriyat was an initiative of the Vajpayee government and that the current NDA government should keep that in mind.
“It was in fact in Mr Vajpayee’s time that talks were first initiated with the Hurriyat. Before that it was just interlocutors like myself, or A.S. Dullat or the current National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval who were talking to them. This was then taken forward by Dr Manmohan Singh’s government. Therefore, there is a historical precedent of an NDA government initiating talks,” he said.
He added that the first item on agenda of alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP, the two parties in power, has, is the opening of dialogue between stakeholders.
“So it’s not as if you are starting something new or something that hasn’t been discussed between the two partners. There has to be a reconciliation among these two dominant groups of the Valley and Jammu, to keep us together. That will only come from dialogue. They can have a dialogue on the nature of the dialogue if they want, but do open avenues for talk,” he said.
