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From Tehelka Archives
April 17, 2001

KC Pant: Listening to a

multiplicity of voices

By deciding to delay its response to the Central government’s formal invitation for talks under
the aegis of its new negotiator, KC Pant, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference is sending out a signal
that it hasn’t said an outright no, says vk shashikumar

he crucial All-Party da has been kept loose. How else
Hurriyat Confer- can Vajpayee accommodate the
ence (APHC) meet- hawkish views of his home min-
ing in Srinagar today ister, L K Advani?
T (Tuesday, April 17) So, if Advani wants the gov-
failed to respond to the Central ernment to engage everyone
government’s formal invitation but the militants in the dialogue
for talks. The six-hour meet- process, Pant (now officially
ing instead decided to delay its given the status of prime min-
response till next week. While ister’s confidante on Kashmir)
differences in the Hurriyat are wants to engage “all groups” in
being cited as the reason for Jammu and Kashmir. The chair-
delay in responding cogently person of the APHC, Abdul Gani
to the Centre’s offer, it would be Bhat, said in Srinagar today that
too charitable to ignore the fact the Hurriyat had “received the
that by doing this the Hurriyat invitation for dialogue from K
has cleverly bought itself valu- C Pant, the Centre’s chief nego-
able political time. tiator, to hold dialogue with all
If the Hurriyat had made up groups in Jammu and Kashmir
its mind to outright reject talks for restoration of peace in the
with the Centre, it would have state”.
done so today, not postponed Considering the operative
a decision for some phantom term to be “all groups”, how
epiphany. If the APHC working can Pant stave off engaging
committee and General Council those who have been wag-
are meeting on Saturday and ing an armed confrontation in
Monday, respectively, then the Kashmir?
reason is that most of Hurriyat On the one hand, Pant wants
leaders dearly desire an un- to broadbase the dialogue pro-
ambiguous endorsement of its cess with the intention of in-
move to engage in a structured dialogue In KC Pant’s volving all affected sections of people
process with the Centre. in the state. Thus, in the first phase, Pant
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appointment, the most intends to proceed with a structured in-
is clearly in the driver’s seat as far as the important thing is the vite-and-talk process with the Hurriyat,
government’s peace initiative in Kash- the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA),
mir is concerned. The appointment of government’s agenda. the Shias in Kargil, and Hindu communi-
the deputy chairperson of the Planning ty organisations in Jammu. But the most
Commission, KC Pant, as the chief nego- And it appears that at important dialogue partner will be the
tiator is, at the end of the day, a matter of the first instant the Hurriyat. After all, it is the Hurriyat that
detail. What is important is the govern- has been propagating separatist politics
ment’s agenda, and it appears that at the agenda seems to be an and is really the political face of militan-
first instant the agenda seems to be an expressed intent for a cy in Kashmir.
expressed intent for a broadbased dia-
logue. It is understandable that the agen- broadbased dialogue letters@tehelka.com

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