Interlocutors to reach Valley today
Jammu and Kashmir interlocutor Mr Dileep Padgaonkar along with other team members, academician Radha Kumar and Central Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari, would reach Srinanagar on Saturday and meet the separatists to kickstart the peace dialogue. This would be the first visit of the team of interlocutors to the strife-
torn Valley. The team would try to meet the Hurriyat Conference leaders, including Masrat Alam, lodged in jails. Alam, known as the mastermind of the current unrest in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested in Srinagar earlier this week.
“During this visit itself, we will try to meet the separatist leaders lodged in jails. When we go there we will get to know who’ll want to meet us. We are ready to hear any extreme view,” Mr Padgoankar told this newspaper on the eve of the visit. “There is no ego issue here. If they don’t meet us what can we do. But we realise that each has constraint of ambitions and we are ready to talk to whoever is keen to meet us,” he said. On Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s statement demanding secession of Kashmir at a seminar in the National Capital, Mr Padgoankar said ,” Every Indian under our democratic Constitution has freedom of expression under Article 19(A). At the end of the Article, however, there are certain carry acts which means we cannot transgress certain boundaries, for example, if our speech incites hatred. It is for the competent authority to judge whether the speeches made by Geelani and other indeed cross those red lines.” On a personal note, Mr Padgaonkar felt that the Indian democracy is mature enough to allow extreme views to be expressed. “In case of Geelani, if you told him not to speak, you would turn him into a martyr which will only serve the purpose of extreme views in the Valley.” He said that extreme view should be allowed to be aired and it does not matter ‘’whether they are extreme views of Right or Left.” During the week long visit to J&K, Mr Padgaonkar said that the team will be meeting young students, women groups, youth organisations, elected representatives of the J&K Assembly and various seperatists groups. “There are a lot of young people who seem to be keen to meet us,” he said. “This is our first visit. We will be visiting J&K every month.”
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