The Government of India on Wednesday named three interlocutors, including eminent journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, to hold talks with all shades of opinion including the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir as part of efforts to bring peace in the state. Besides Mr. Padgaonkar, Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari and noted academician Radha Kumar were the other two named by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram as interlocutors chosen in consultation with the state government. However the latest initiative from New Delhi is already facing criticism from both the political establishment in mainland India and also the stakeholders in Jammu & Kashmir. Political parties are not satisfied with the composition of the team. Their main concern seems to be that this new team lacks the political mandate that is required to engage with the concerned groups in a more fruitful manner. The response from the Valley is also on expected lines with the separatist leaders simply not interested with such offers being made from time to time. Rather than addressing substantive political issues, such exercises are seen as cosmetic, time consuming and pointless. This is not the first time that such initiative has been taken. In fact Mr Padgaonkar was part of Kashmir committee led by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani a few years back. However nothing worthwhile materialized and therefore people seem to be skeptical of such exercise whether they are in the form of interlocutors, study groups, committee etc.
The term interlocutor and the penchant with which the Government of India seems to be engaging such people to talk to ‘separatists’ or civil society is something of a new phenomenon although there has been no successful outcome so far of using interlocutor or emissary to resolve a particular problem. Starting with the Naga peace process, appointing interlocutors has become a noteworthy exercise of the Home Ministry to tide over a crisis. In the last over ten years of the ceasefire and talks with the NSCN, Delhi has employed upto three interlocutor—Swaraj Kaushal, K Padmanabhaiah and now RS Pandey. However despite having such people, the problem was always about the political credibility. For sometime, during the first UPA government, a Group of Minister headed by senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandez was given charge of the parleys with the Naga group. However this was discontinued for whatever reasons. Later after exhausting the services of Mr Padmanabhaiah, New Delhi argued that it wanted to get into direct talks with the Naga group and therefore a former Nagaland Chief Secretary RS Pandey was roped in, although nothing much has changed. Obviously the Home Ministry has become very adept in dilly-dallying. The appointment of three interlocutors for Jammu & Kashmir adds to the long list of people being employed for talks with the Northeast and Kashmir groups. At least in the case of the Naga dialogue process, even if a political mandate was lacking, it was always a retired top bureaucrat who was given charge of handling such issues. The latest exercise undertaken for Kashmir appears to be more of a study group rather than a real effort to take the political initiative. The disappointment is therefore justified.
