Three top separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik today described recent statements issued by the Home Minister and the Foreign Minister about holding talks as “ambiguous and lacking clarity.” They said, “ambiguity leaves little room” to consider “the talk about talks” seriously. It also leaves a little room for a response, the leaders said, thus putting the ball back into the Centre’s court without rejecting talks.
In a significant shift, they said if the Central government "talks clearly what it wants to talk about" and "speaks in one language" they are ready to join the process. “Any effort GoI makes in this direction will find takers in Kashmir and Pakistan”, the separatist leaders said. However, they said they cannot afford to be part of ambiguous efforts that has no clarity and direction.
While pointing out “contradictions” the separatist leaders in a joint statement said Home Minister Rajnath Singh says there should be dialogue with both Kashmir and Pakistan but at the same time he also says both “Kashmir and Kashmiri is ours”. They said Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj put a rider and said no talks with Pakistan unless “terror is stopped.” Then the BJP president Amit Shah gave a spin to the unilateral conditional ceasefire saying it is not for militants but for people, they said.
The leaders said all these statements came just a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in Srinagar that “panacea to Kashmir problem is development and peace is a prerequisite for that to happen.” “This again has put the onus of bringing peace on people while absolving the government of India from its role and responsibility in the matter deliberately,” they said.
However, the separatists said they don’t want to “score points by highlighting the discrepancies and contradictions” in the statements but they want to understand what the Central Government is conveying through such statements. They said once it is made clear they will respond accordingly.
They also said as “J&K is a divided territory and half of it is in Pakistan, this dispute has three stakeholders India Pakistan and people of this land.” They said meaningful talks based on a clear agenda underlining sincerity among all the three stakeholders are an assured and peaceful way to resolve the conflict of Kashmir in all its forms and dimensions.” This indicates that separatists are for the trilateral talks. They said the absence of anyone stakeholder in the process will not yield to any solution.
In fact unlike the past practice when the separatists would reject talks off hand, this time, they said: “since people of J&K are at the receiving end of the lingering 70-year-old conflict, being the worst affected, we are most keen to find an end to it.” They went further and said they have always advocated that “being a political and human issue, Kashmir needs to be addressed likewise, not militarily as GoI has been doing.” Pushing the envelope further they said, “for a political redressal of the conflict, the dialogue among stakeholders is the best process and option available.”
The statement was issued by the three leaders after a meeting at the residence of Geelani at uptown Hyderpora. The three leaders have formed an alliance in 2016 unrest which is called Joint Resistance Leadership.
