On the last day of his Kashmir visit, Sharma said that he was “very much satisfied” with his maiden visit to the Valley, and would try to make every effort to meet the Hurriyat leaders during his next visit, which is slated for the last week of November
The Central Government’s special representative on Jammu & Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, on Wednesday stepped out of the guest house to meet some top mainstream political leaders including former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. On the conclusion of his maiden stay in Srinagar he interacted with 65 delegations to understand the nuances of Kashmir issue. Most of the delegations were comprised apolitical entities including youngsters and sportsmen.
Sharma, who would fly to Jammu on the second leg of his 5-day tour, hoped that separatist Hurriyat Conference leadership would interact with him. After emerging from a meeting with legislator Hakim Yasin and former Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir at Marxist leader MY Tarigami’s residence, Dharma told reporters that he would try his best to meet Hurriyat.
He said the meeting with different delegations was very good. “I wish peace returns and political solution also comes,” he said.
Earlier, Sharma called upon Omar Abdullah at his residence, his first meeting outside the confines of fortified Hari Niwas Palace, a state-run guest house. “Mr Dineshwar Sharma & I met at my residence in Srinagar this morning. We discussed the prevailing situation in the state as also steps that can be taken to make his visits to the state more meaningful,” Omar tweeted after the meeting.
Omar expressed hope that Sharma would broaden his ambit to hold talks to resolve the Kashmir issue. “Staying in a guesthouse and waiting for the people to come to meet him will not work,” he told reporters after the meeting.
The former CM said Sharma had sent him a message for a meeting and maintained that his party National Conference did not get a formal invitation. Sharma also met state Congress chief GA Mir, ruling Peoples Democratic Party vice president Sartaj Madni and independent legislator Sheikh Rashid.
“I made it clear to Sharma that without including Pakistan and militant leadership in the talks nothing can be achieved,” Rashid said.
“It is not a favour to the people of the Jammu and Kashmir, but a legitimate concern and duty of the Government of India to continue the dialogue process,” MY Tarigami said.
He said that more the dialogue process is delayed, more problems it will create for the people and compound them. “Dialogue is the only option but needs to be sustainable and institutionalised. We stressed that the statements from the BJP functionaries impacted the process. Our point of view was to continue dialogue for peace. It should not be peace followed by dialogue,” he said.
The ruling PDP in a statement said that Madni stressed upon Sharma that the exercise undertaken by him would culminate into meaningful and tangible outcome, despite difficulties. Madni reminded the interlocutor about the trust deficit which impedes any good initiative for peace and resolution. He desired that centre should do everything possible to gain the confidence of the people and stake-holders in order to sustain the process of dialogue till every stake holder is willingly engaged, the statement said.
“I would say I am very happy to meet so many people from different shades of opinions, and it has been very fruitful till now,” Sharma said as reported.
The focus, Sharma said, has to be on the youth of Jammu and Kashmir, and that he would go to every extent to understand their problems and try to find out how they could be solved. He said this alone would bring prosperity and stability to the region.
Most of the people who met the interlocutor over the last three days, including 15 delegations on Monday, 37 on Tuesday, and eight on Wednesday had expressed concerns over news channels trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the Valley and creating an atmosphere of hatred towards Kashmiris outside the state.
“I agree, and some channels have done a lot of damage to Kashmir,” Sharma told a delegation of youth from Srinagar, who met him in Srinagar on Tuesday.
Various delegations have told Sharma that the negative perception generated by the Indian media has badly impacted the tourism industry in the Valley and businesses have also suffered because of the “sustained” negative coverage. “Our endeavour would be to see everything gets back to normal here. Only after that would there be a political solution,” he told another delegation inside Hari Niwas Guest house, an erstwhile interrogation centre which was the venue for the talks.
According to officials, at least 40 percent of the delegations who met Sharma over the last three days had directly contacted him.
During his next visit, Sharma is expected to visit the various districts of the Valley, particularly in south Kashmir. And it’s also likely that he may visit some colleges and meet students from the different districts. “I’m very hopeful that some positive results will be seen in the coming months,” he said.
On the last day of his Kashmir visit, Sharma said that he was “very much satisfied” with his maiden visit to the Valley, and would try to make every effort to meet the Hurriyat leaders during his next visit, which is slated for the last week of November. He will be arriving in Jammu today and will stay in the state’s winter capital for two days before winding up his five-day visit.
Sharma, known in the intelligence fraternity as the “gentleman spy”, said he had full faith in the youth of Kashmir, and said they could change the destiny of the state. “I have full faith in the people and youth of Kashmir. I think they will bring about change that is needed here,” Sharma said at the house of state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who met him at Friends Colony near Srinagar Airport.
Sharma was appointed by the central government on 23 October to hold “peace talks” and a “sustained dialogue” with the Valley’s separatist leadership, in order to bring about normalcy to the state.
