The interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Monday got the backing of state chief minister Omar Abdullah and the Union home ministry over their comments on involving Pakistan in resolving the issue. The Congress too joined in the chorus, suggesting that political parties should desist from playing politics as the interlocutors were dealing with a very sensitive issue.

AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed, sidestepping a direct question on whether the party supported the statement of Mr Dileep Padgaonkar, head of the three-member panel of interlocutors, said: “No individual, group or political party or political groups should play politics in it and ignore the national interest. Nobody should conduct (themselves) in a manner which put obstructions in such sensitive work. Kashmir is a sensitive issue and the job of the interlocutors is also very sensitive.”
Mr Padgaonkar had said: “A dialogue with Pakistan is as necessary as the dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the vexed issue — which is a bilateral dispute going on since 1947-48.”
Mr Ahmed’s comments came in the backdrop of the BJP criticising Mr Padgaonkar for his comment and demanding that the Prime Minister’s Office explain if this was indeed part of the brief for the team.
The AICC spokesperson, while praising the Centre-appointed interlocutors as “very competent individuals in their field... who have acquired great respect”, said it would be premature to comment on Mr Padgaonkar’s statement. “We neither support nor oppose what they have said... This is very premature. The interlocutors will work as per the mandate they have been given. They will talk to a cross-section of people, elicit their views and then submit their report. Right now, the thing has just begun and it is not correct to find fault at this stage,” Mr Ahmed said.
“Our concern is that obstructions should not be put in the interlocutors’ job through unnecessary statements,” Mr Ahmed added.
The Union home ministry also defended the interlocutors, maintaining that they have begun in the right direction by trying to talk to all shades of opinion in the Valley.
Officials said the interlocutors had not suggested anything new when they said there was a need for talks with Pakistan on resolving the Kashmir issue. They pointed out that the BJP, which has criticised the interlocutors’ suggestion, had itself discussed the Kashmir situation with Pakistan at the Agra summit. “The interlocutors are eliciting the views of different groups, political outfits, youth and people of the state. What they have said is nothing new,” the officials added.
Talking to reporters in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said that Mr Padgaonkar’s statement was not out of place. “Nothing what the interlocutors had said with regard to Pakistan’s role in Jammu and Kashmir is wrong. After the Shimla Agreement, whenever talks were held with Pakistan, Kashmir has figured in it,” he said.
Claiming that Parliament had passed a resolution in 1995 calling for the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from PoK, Mr Abdullah asked: “Rightly or wrongly, is that not making Pakistan a party? Pakistan has a role in Jammu and Kashmir. How can you ignore it?”