New Delhi’s interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir Dinesh Sharma is currently on his second visit to Kashmir valley. Sharma’s first visit to the valley was by and large seen as a non-starter as many in Kashmir viewed his Kashmir Yatra with a lot of scepticism believing that lot more was needed to be done to achieve a thaw. Sharma, during his stay in Srinagar, met a number of delegations including the leaders of mainstream political parties but people who mainly contest India’s position on Kashmir largely chose to keep away. They simply refused to meet the man (interlocutor) saying that the forced negotiations have no political or moral justifications.
Although there are unverified reports that the Sharma had ‘secret but separate meetings’ with many of the lower ranking leaders of Hurriyat but the top leadership including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in categorical terms refused the dialogue offer making it absolutely clear that the exercise was a ‘waste of time’, and questioned the sincerity of New Delhi.
New Delhi’s bid to engage Hurriyat in talks and its mission to set the ball rolling for what it called sustainable dialogue met with some hiccups at its take off stage due to obvious reasons, however, the media reports emanating from Kashmir regarding the Sharma’s second visit are a bit encouraging, at least, for the BJP government that was criticized by all and sundry for Continuing its muscular approach and in the garb of initiating a “sustained dialogue process
According to a report in Economic Times, the former Intelligence Bureau head Sharma drove to the residence-cum-office of Abdul Gani Bhat in WazirBagh Srinagar on November 27 around 10:30 pm in Srinagar where another Hurriyat leader was present during the meeting, which went on for around an hour. Although Prof. Bhat had refused divulge details of his engagement with Sharma, but added that his party (Muslim Conference) was principally in favour of dialogue and “open to meet anybody who seeks a dialogue on Kashmir, including Sharma. “Our doors are open for dialogue. Why shouldn’t we talk to people? We do it with pressmen. We do it sometimes with members of a delegation. We did it with Yashwant Sinha? Why not with some other people who come to see us? We feel that till the time Pakistan is not involved, there will be no breakthrough,” Bhat had told the newspaper.
The purported meeting with the former APHC chairman may probably lend ‘credence’ to Sharma’s mission Kashmir, which is seen as an exercise in futility. BJP government will try to cash it politically for some time being but the fact is that the Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute that needs to be resolved peacefully by taking on board all the stakeholders, particularly Kashmiris who happen to be the main and principle party to the dispute. Prof. Bhat too had rightly pointed out that there will be no breakthrough unless Pakistan is involved in the dialogue process.
