PM tells his advisor to join Kashmir, Manipur firefighting exercise

With his government beginning to invite flak for its handling of the situation in Manipur and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ask...

With his government beginning to invite flak for its handling of the situation in Manipur and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Special Advisor M K Narayanan to focus on Kashmir and Manipur and become the interface between the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Home Ministry on these two critical issues.

As an internal security expert who enjoys the confidence of both Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Narayanan is now playing advisor to Home Minister Shivraj Patil in an attempt to put back on tracks talks with Kashmiri separatists.

He’s also working on the Manipur problem, trying to get the Apunba Lup, the umbrella organisation spearheading the agitation, into a dialogue with Delhi.

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It’s learnt that Narayanan was asked to join the firefight after UPA allies, especially the Left, raised concerns over the government’s handling of the situation in the two states.

Sources said Narayanan is also preparing a concept paper on Kashmir to revive the peace dialogue between the Hurriyat and the Centre and suggest measures to reduce the influence of Pakistan on separatist groups.

	In Manipur, students call for ban on Hindi

			• Student unions in Manipur on Sunday decided to ‘‘ban’’ Hindi in all educational institutions in the state from Tuesday till the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is withdrawn • Apunba Lup, the alliance of 32 organisations protesting against the AFSPA in Manipur, began their 16-day blockade of national highways in the state from midnight on Sunday

He has been studying in detail the Centre’s past initiatives on Kashmir, going back in time to the days of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. He has also studied the paper by Textiles Secretary Wajahat Habibullah at the Institute of Peace in the US on doing away with the alienation of the Kashmiris.

Before the Prime Minister visits Jammu and Kashmir next month, Narayanan and the Home Ministry plan a consolidation of separatist forces minus Syed Ali Shah Geelani: the idea is to get the dialogue with the Centre going.

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The Government sees an opportunity because Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Shabir Shah of Democratic Freedom Party and JKLF’s Yasin Malik were said to have had reservations on joining hands with Geelani when Pakistan Foreign Minister Kurshid Kasuri came calling.

Naryanan’s mandate is to review the role of Centre’s Kashmir interlocutor, cut down Pakistani propaganda and persuade the separatists to revive the dialogue with Delhi. Back channel contacts have already begun because the Centre wants to interact with all Valley groups. The test case though will be Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s visit to J&K on October 23.

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