Former IOK negotiator urges dialogue

Wajahat Habibullah says dialogue is a matter of urgency

Former chief information commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah snubbed Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for her decision to hold talks between various stake holders in the disputed valley after three-two months and urged for the opening of dialogue between various stakeholders at once.

Speaking to The Hindu, Habibullah, who was a member of the committee of concerned citizens who visited IOK after violence erupted following the killing of Burhan Wani last year, said dialogue was a matter of urgency.

“If the things are normal then what will the talks be for? You have to initiate talks to bring things to normal... That’s what the talks should be for. I haven’t spoken to Mehboobaji after the citizens group went and met her, so I can’t tell you what the implications of her meetings here are, but my own feeling would be that you must open dialogue with various stakeholders including the Hurriyat and several sections of Kashmiri society in help resolve the problem,” he said, adding, “You have to open a dialogue with those who have a problem; there is no point in talking to those who don’t have a problem.”



The chief minister of IOK after her meeting earlier this week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Sing, had claimed that the violence in the disputed valley could improve in two to three months and talks could start after the calming of tension.

Habibullah, who was serving as bureaucrat in IOK in the1990s was also the chief negotiator on behalf of the Indian government during the siege of the Hazrat Bal shrine in Srinagar, said that dialogue with the Hurriyat leaders was an initiative of the then Vajpayee government and advised incumbent IOnidan government to keep that in mind.

“It was in fact in Vajpayee’s time that talks were first initiated with the Hurriyat. Before that it was just interlocutors like myself, or A S Dullat or the current National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval who were talking to them. This was then taken forward by Dr Manmohan Singh’s government. Therefore, there is a historical precedent of an NDA government initiating talks,” he said.