PMO gets moving to salvage J&K meet

Mahendra Ved / TNN / Feb 19, 2006, 03:16 IST

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have staked a lot on the February 25 roundtable on J&K.

NEW DELHI: In his own quiet but firm manner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have staked a lot on the February 25 roundtable on J&K that is perceived as the beginning of the effort at 'mainstreaming' the troubled state's polity.
As more separatist leaders spurned Singh's invitation, Union minister Saifuddin Soz was in Srinagar to talk to an array of leaders.Others in the Prime Minister's Office's have also became active after the Friday evening meeting between the PM and JKLF leader Yasin Malik.
Part of the reason for the rejections is the perceived 'slight' at the invitations being sent through an official. Sources in the government said the invitations were being followed up 'politically'.
The government's expectation is that after receiving a signal from Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, asking them to respond positively to the government's conciliatory moves, a fair number of separatist leaders would join in.

Of them, the government could do without the participation of some hardliners like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, whose role remains disruptive. From the rest, there is the likelihood that Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq would attend the meeting. He had earlier agreed in principle to join a conciliatory process, but has been bed-ridden after his ankle got fractured.
Close to 40 people of all political and non-political hues have been invited. The roundtable seems to have brought hope to Kashmiri Pandits having a separate meeting with the PM. The Pandits' representatives had been ready with a compact team, but the schedule could not be worked out due to the PM's preoccupations.

Those invited to the roundtable include Agni Shekhar and Ajay Chrangroo �� both head rival factions of the Panun Kashmir. Then there is M L Bhat, who represents the Pandits who have stayed on the Valley despite the trouble.
The roundtable, while being essentially an all-in dialogue, is also expected to reinforce the government's message that no individual, no group can claim to be the sole representative of Kashmiris.
This is partly the cause of some of the rejections. Bilal Lone, who heads one faction of the J&K People's Conference, is upset since the PM chose to meet his brother Sajjad, who heads the party's rival faction.

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