The all-party delegation came visiting the Kashmir Valley on Monday but that did not serve as a balm for the festering wounds of the ordinary Kashmiris.
Indeed, despite all the hype surrounding the visit by the delegation to the troubled Valley, it appeared to hold out scant hope for a population which had to remain holed up inside its homes for the second consecutive day on Monday in curfew-bound Srinagar.
So while the shopkeeper, the shikara owner, the college student, the businessman and of course the "stone pelter" and others forcibly stayed home, a stream of delegations, most of them political, met the all-party delegation led by Union home minister P. Chidambaram within the impressive and "safe" environs of the of the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre which overlooks the iconic but now dirty Dal Lake.
As moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told this newspaper, "The whole city has been turned into a military camp. They’re putting a gun on our heads and telling us to talk. They’re using force to suppress the voice of the people when they are merely demanding their rights."
The delegation wasn’t going to reach out to the aam admi who has been facing the brunt of the volatile situation in the Valley in recent months and bemoans the situation he finds himself in.
The state government had ensured that the aam admi would not be able to reach it given the strict in force all over the city.
Of course, the state government had earlier given phone numbers on which a meeting with the delegation could be sought.
However, those who called these numbers were asked to send faxes stating what they wanted to speak on prompting PDP leader Mehbboa Mufti to remark, "How do you expect people to send faxes when there is a curfew in place?"
Said Akhtar Ahmed Bhatt, a young businessman: "The delegation should have met the families of the young boys who have been killed by security forces in the last three months. They should have visited the hospitals and the neighbourhoods."
Yet another young man, a hotel employee, made this pithy comment, "Nothing will happen. After all, Kashmiris have been made so many promises over the decades that have not been fulfilled."