Sinha-led Kashmir team recommends dialogue

Asks govt to also improve human rights situation in state

A team of “concerned citizens” led by former external affairs minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday released its report on Kashmir.

The team recommended “multi-dimensional dialogue” by the PDP-BJP government, which includes talks with the Hurriyat “at the earliest”.

It also asked the government to improve the human rights situation and “resuscitate” democratic linkages between people and allow Kashmiris to assemble and meet to hold discussions.

The report wanted the administration to institutionalise the process of interaction between civil society groups from the rest of India and the Kashmiris by involving more opinion makers and citizens.

Listing its most important findings after visiting the militancy-affected rural areas of the Kashmir Valley, the report said that the anger in the rural areas is palpably greater than in Srinagar. The report also noted particularly that there is an increasing lack of fear among the youngsters, or so they claim, in confronting the security forces.

“They point out that neither the president nor the prime minister had participated in the last rites and burial of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, while both had rushed to Chennai when J Jayalalithaa passed away. They contrasted the way two gold medal-winning sportspersons — P V Sindhu and young Tajmul Islam — were felicitated on their return from abroad,” the report said.

The team also found that “the dominant feeling one came across was that no amount of financial packages will help resolve the political issue of Kashmir.

The overwhelming feeling was that the only context within which the Kashmir issue can be settled is the one laid out by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee — of resolving the Kashmir tangle within the ambit of humanity (insaniyat ke dayare mein)”.

Big trouble after April, says report
The Yashwant Sinha-led team of “concerned citizens” on Kashmir has concluded that there is a strange apprehension among the Kashmiris that something untoward is going to happen once spring sets in, DHNS reports. 

As of now, the strike calendar has become fortnightly and a complete hartal or closure is limited to only two days in a week. It is, as though, realising the hardships being faced by the people, the Hurriyat leaders have decided not to enforce the hartal with full vigour, according to the team’s report.

However, it said “what happens in the period after April 2017 is expected to be much higher in magnitude and
intensity”.