Don't neglect Kashmiri talks

India has fallen into a pattern of taking halfway measures while dealing with the Kashmir issue. Allowing in leaders from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the first time, but then ignoring their presence officially, falls into this pattern.
Sardar Mohammed Abdul Qayyum Khan did pioneer the separatist movement in J&K, enough to be called Mujaheed-e-Awwal.It is also true that for long he played the Kashmir card for Islamabad, being PoK's president four times and its PM once, and that at present he is not the most prized guy of the ISI.
But his stature and what he says in the new scenario, particularly on Indian soil, could have been taken note of, at least in a semi-official manner, if not with PM Manmohan Singh or UPA chief Sonia Gandhi meeting him. Even "dropping by" at an unofficial gathering would have mattered.
Hardliners on Kashmir are said to have prevented such meetings. The most significant outcome of 'heart-to-heart' between Kashmiris on both sides of the border, the first to be held on Indian soil, was the emergence of the much-needed 'Kashmiri' perspective on the issue.
For long, the widely accepted view has been that India and Pakistan must sit across the table, rather than fire their guns, and settle the issue. This is still the basic reality.
But the "third" viewpoint needs to be understood both in India and Pakistan ��� by the respective establishments, by the separatists of various hues and most of all, by the militants. For one, it represents to a considerable extent, the new ground realities.
Two, it comes from people who can compare AJK ("Azad Jammu and Kashmir") with J&K and could at some stage take a wider, regional view. Three, it represents the changed perspectives since 9/11 and the compulsions of President Pervez Musharraf as the grudging and suspect player of the global anti-terror campaign.
For New Delhi, which issued visas to political leaders of various hues from AJK, it was an opportunity to take its confidence-building measures beyond Islamabad. What has been revealed in the process is a vastly changed perception of Sardar Qayyum.
He used his first-ever visit to say that seeking an independent Kashmir was "a mental luxury" and that those claiming to fight for it by spreading terror were conducting anything but 'jehad'.
He went a step further to say that militants were misusing Islam and that the worst sufferers of the militancy were the Pandits who must be brought back home and rehabilitated. Qayyum was telling separatists what neither New Delhi nor Islamabad could directly say.
The presence of many moderate separatists at the conclave was significant, even if everyone stuck to known positions. They have met before at Geneva, Brussels and elsewhere. But saying the things they did in New Delhi, without the frenzied reaction that some of them evoke while in Islamabad, made all the difference.
Which was why a semblance of official recognition would have mattered. The group from the PoK was anything but homogeneous. It revealed political fissures within PoK's polity.
The presence of All Party National Alliance (APNA) leaders from Gilgit and Skardu revealed the popular anger against Islamabad's stranglehold over northern areas where several international borders, especially China's, converge. The APNA underscored the fragility of political institutions in AJK, whatever Islamabad's claims.
If Pak-sponsored infiltration is held down, the impact of this heart-to-heart talk on the overall peace process, both at the New Delhi-Islamabad and New Delhi-Srinagar level, cannot but be positive. Talking to separatists has not been easy for New Delhi, no matter who is in power.
The separatists needed a lot of cajoling, even after 9/11 and the assembly polls in 2002 that, in a sense, were a landmark. And just when they took the first step with the BJP leaders, the government changed and they were confronted with the prospect of talking to the Congress, the "mother" of the Kashmir problem to many.
This explains why the Hurriyat made all the hostile noises, spurned Manmohan Singh's invitation and chose to meet Pervez Musharraf instead. It was a nudge from Musharraf that drove them back to Manmohan Singh. With the Man-Mush chemistry working, the time is ripe for taking the process further.