With Omar Abdullah indicating father Farooq’s willingness to accept a roving ambassadorship, the Centre is now awaiting the J-K CM’s return from London to begin winding up his regime in Srinagar. Abdullah senior is due back on July 12, after which the Centre intends to put into motion the poll package hammered out with the father-son duo. It includes imposition of Governor’s Rule in J-K, Farooq’s absorption at the Centre as a Cabinet minister without portfolio, and a change of Governor over demands to clear all links to the Farooq regime. These are aimed at encouraging separatist groups to participate in the coming polls and send a strong message to the international community about the freedom of choice for Kashmiris. Once Farooq steps down, the Centre hopes for clear signals from separatist leaders that they will fight polls. Then Vajpayee will visit the Valley and meet some of these leaders. There are indications the PM is ready to make conciliatory gestures by offering a dialogue with elected representatives of the next Assembly. The profile of Farooq’s new assignment is not yet clear. The status of Cabinet Minister without portfolio-cum-roving ambassador was a compromise that emerged after Farooq realised the Centre would not give him External Affairs. What the Centre hopes to do is use Farooq as its Kashmir spokesman. The Narasimha Rao Government had used Farooq effectively to counter Pakistani propaganda on Kashmir. With the issue likely to move centrestage in the coming months — particularly after the polls — the Centre hopes to use Farooq as a potent weapon for the country’s cause. But the details are yet to be worked out. The Centre has to decide whether to send a bureaucrat or an Army general or appoint a politician as the Governor. The latter would send a signal to the Valley the Centre is willing to deal with Kashmir politically rather than as a security or law-and-order problem.
