Separatists and mainstream political leaders have decried Government of India’s decision to call off Foreign Secretary level talks with Pakistan over the Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s invitation to separatist leaders for deliberations ahead of the high-profile meet.
Chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Geelani termed the decision as “unfortunate” and demonstrative of New Delhi’s “confrontationist policy on Kashmir issue”. Head of pro-dialogue faction of Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq termed the decision as short-sighted and bereft of political maturity.
“It vindicates that New Delhi never wants to resolve Kashmir peacefully and those who say that Kashmir cannot be solved with talks are proven right,” Geelani said.
He said that talking to Kashmiri separatist leaders was not a new phenomenon. “Whenever Pakistan enters into talks with Government of India, it takes on board Kashmir’s resistance leadership and that the present move is nothing sans the reflection of the politically immature leadership of New Delhi.
Geelani’s spokesman said that his party chief will leave for New Delhi on August 19 to hold talks with Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit despite the announcement of calling off the foreign secretary level talks.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was also invited by Basit for “deliberations”, said that it was ironical to call of foreign secretary level talks over the issue of inclusion of Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue process. “Without the inclusion of Kashmiris in dialogue process, the issue (of Kashmir) cannot be addressed and this is ironical that the talks have been called off due to the inclusion of Kashmir’s leadership in talks”, he said. He added that no talks between India and Pakistan could be result oriented until the Kashmir issue was addressed on priority.
Meanwhile, the mainstream political parties and leaders have also decried Government’s decision to call off talks with Pakistan.
The JKPCC chief Saifuddin Soz said that Modi government should not have called off talks with Pakistan merely over a comment by a Congress leader. “What Manish Tewari commented was a reminder to Modi led government that BJP was criticizing Congress unnecessarily. He never demanded that foreign secretary level talks must be called off”, Soz said.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti described calling off talks as “highly negative development” that casts a shadow on the atmosphere of reconciliation generated by the invitation to Nawaz Sharif in swearing in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Meeting between Pakistan high commissioner and Hurriyat leaders is nothing new and it is a very flimsy ground for shelving bold initiative that was taken by BJP government in resuming diplomatic talks with Pakistan”, Mufti said in a statement.
Mehbooba said in spite of the realization that there was no alternative to dialogue between two countries, it is beyond comprehension as to what is achieved by such knee-jerk reaction to the routine events like the Pakistan high commission’s invitation to separatists. She said such meetings have taken place during Congress led government and also during the previous NDA government led by Vajpayee. “If this could be tolerated then it makes hardly any sense for them now to be seen as provocative.”
The ruling National Conference leader Ali Muhammad Sagar said that the decision to call off talks was “inappropriate”.