There was dissonance within the ranks of the all-party delegation visiting troubled Jammu and Kashmir even before it had completed its mission to reach out to the people of the state. The sour note was struck by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, a team member, who said on Tuesday that it was not the delegation’s collective decision to meet the separatist leaders on Monday, nor had it mandated its members to meet them.
Amid the hoopla over delegation members reaching out to the separatists, chief minister Omar Abdullah came out with a statement in which he appeared to take credit for the all-party delegation’s move to meet the separatists. He said the all-party team’s meetings with the separatist leaders was scheduled and “we had only worked to make it possible”.
Ms Swaraj, whose party wants Article 370 of the Constitution — which gives Kashmir a special status — to be abrogated, said when asked about some team members calling on the separatist leaders: “No, no, it was not a mandate. It was not discussed in the delegation. Some members expressed their desire to go there. Naturally, the delegation leader said you can go.”
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, who was one of those who met Hurriyat hardliner S.A.S. Geelani, said the desire to meet the separatist leaders had been expressed in front of the entire delegation, and no one had opposed it. Amid these differences emerging, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan also called on Mr Geelani on Tuesday.
While these cracks had emerged while the delegation was still in Srinagar, some of its members — including Union home minister P. Chidambaram — got a taste of the ordinary Kashmiri’s anger over the killings of over 100 people, most of them young men, in the Valley over the past three months.
Tuesday was also significant in that the state government finally decided to relax curfew for three hours in certain areas of Srinagar, which finally saw some activity after over 48 hours. Curfew had been
in force in the entire Srinagar area since Sunday morning.
The reaching out to the separatist leadership — the MPs had met both Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and dove Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, as well as JKLF chief Yasin Malik — is, however, unlikely to have any significant impact on the protest calendar issued by Mr Geelani, which has severely disrupted
normal life in the Valley for many weeks.
Mr Geelani told this newspaper on Tuesday that he would review the protest calendar only if the Centre accepted the five conditions laid down by him last month. These include acceptance of Kashmir as an international dispute and the complete demilitarisation of the Valley.
It was at Tangmarg, some 40 km from Srinagar, that Mr Chidambaram experienced firsthand the ordinary Kashmiri’s anger over the rising death toll in the Valley. Visiting the town which saw six deaths on
September 13 along with some delegation members on Tuesday morning, one resident asked him pointedly: “Don’t you feel the pain when bullets are being fired at us?” Another wondered why brutality was being used against protesters when the government maintained that Kashmir was an integral part of the country.
In Srinagar, the delegation had to beat a somewhat hasty retreat from a government hospital after the relatives of patients injured in firing incidents decided to hold an impromptu protest, shouting, “Hum kya chahte hain azadi, chheen ke lenge azadi (We want freedom, and we will snatch it).” To a question by one delegation member as to what he wanted, the young brother of a patient with bullet injuries replied: “We need azadi (freedom).”
The same anti-India shouting outside the Government Hospital for Bone and Joint Surgery here, which delegation members were due to visit, saw its cancellation. Said a visibly angry Parvez Ahmed Bhat,
who had come with a patient, “ The delegation will not be able to resolve the Kashmir problem.”