Politics appears to have kicked in even before the high-profile all-party delegation led in all likelihood by Union home minister P. Chidambaram arrives in this curfew-bound state capital on Monday morning. Mehbooba Mufti, president of the People’s Democratic Party, on Sunday gave strong indications that her party might not attend the meeting as she accused the Omar Abdullah-led state government of trying to “orchestrate” who would get to meet the delegation members. A decision on whether the PDP would meet the delegation would be taken only on Monday morning, she said.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah, on his part, told the media on Sunday that he was not someone to run
away from problems and that he was a “fighter”. On a day when four more people were killed in the strife-torn Valley, raising the death toll in three months of violence to 108, the CM vowed he would “overcome this crisis”.
Speaking to this newspaper at her Gupkar Road residence, Ms Mufti, the PDP chief, wondered why the state government had imposed a three-day curfew here beginning Sunday (it was relaxed in parts of Srinagar on Saturday for a few hours) just when the delegation was due to arrive, and despite the fact that Hurriyat hardliner S.A.S. Geelani had not issued any call for a shutdown on Sunday. She accused the National Conference of bringing its workers into Srinagar — to be presented before the delegation as members of various associations, student groups, etc, and thus offer “sponsored viewpoints”.
The octogenarian Mr Geelani had earlier announced his decision to keep away from the all-party delegation. The separatist leader, now under house arrest, reiterated his view that India should acknowledge Kashmir to be a “international” dispute. He added that since the delegation would look at issues within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, this was not compatible with his outfit’s demand for self-determination.
Two other Kashmiri leaders — Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference and is also currently under house arrest, and JKLF chief Yasin Malik — were also yet to make up their minds on participating in deliberations with the delegation till late Sunday evening. However, it was only on Sunday evening that they got invitations from the state government to meet the delegation on Tuesday. There were indications that they would decide on whether to accept or not only after consulting each other. This comes as no surprise given that the JKLF chief had recently addressed a gathering at the Idgah after the Mirwaiz had invited him to do so.
All that Mr Yasin Malik said on Sunday evening was that he would decide on participation “after I have consulted all my executive members”. But sources said he might just agree to meet the delegation given that he is concerned about the failure of the “mechanism of dialogue”.
Ms Mehbooba Mufti was more forthcoming. She said: “We had hoped the delegation would interact with ordinary people. After all, many who attended the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had this perception that there’s nothing wrong in Jammu and Kashmir. But there is a mass uprising here, atrocities are being committed, human rights are being violated and the government is only surviving
because it has imposed the most inhuman restrictions.”
Describing as “repressive” the decision to impose a three-day curfew, Ms Mehbooba said delegation members should make some attempt to reach out to people on their own. Referring to Mr Geelani’s decision to not hold any dialogue with the delegation, she remarked: “People whose voice is the voice of dissent should say what they want to say.”