The leaking of the report of the Centre’s interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir to a section of media has exasperated lone Independent member of the State Assembly Sheikh Abdur Rashid who said on Saturday that it shows the government’s “non-serious approach” vis-a-vis resolving the issue of Kashmir.
“Also, the report appears to be disappointing as the interlocutors have failed to address the issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir. The people expected them to recommend the restoration of pre-1947 position but they have refused even to ask for pre-1953 Constitutional status of the state. This only reflects the Centre favours buying time on the issues,” he told a press conference here. He added, “There is nothing new in the interlocutors’ report and it only seemed to be an attempt at crisis management than resolving the issues.”
Mr Rashid also doubted the intention behind leaking the report to the media.
“How was the sensitive report leaked to the media? It shows the non-serious approach of the government towards Kashmir issue.” He said, “The panel of interlocutors was appointed at the peak of the 2010 summer unrest... the contents of the report, as reported by Hindu newspaper, seems to be an attempt to manage the crisis that addressing the Kashmir issue.”
The MLA said that the team had visited his constituency Langeat also “where people clearly told them what they want but it does not seem to have been reflected in the report.”
He added, “The interlocutors have not reflected the aspirations of the people in their report.” He also accused the Interlocutors and the Centre of “hurting the sentiments of the people of Kashmir.”
Chief minister Omar Abdullah had earlier this week expressed surprise at leaking of the report to Hindu. He tweeted, “So the Hindu has a copy of the Interlocutors report. Please share yours’ with me (if the real deal) since I don’t have a copy as yet.”