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Journalism of Courage
Taking a hardline posture against New Delhi for the first time since the Hurriyat-Centre talks began, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Farooq today announced a boycott of the May 24-25 roundtable in Srinagar claiming there were too many people at the table.
Had New Delhi limited the May 25 Srinagar roundtable to parties like the National Conference, Peoples8217; Democratic Party and Congress, 8216;8216;our the separatist participation could have been worked out,8217;8217; he told The Indian Express.
He said the Hurriyat, however, was committed to the direct dialogue with the Centre. 8216;8216;We Hurriyat have a difference in opinion with New Delhi regarding the future of J038;K, not NC or PDP or Congress. So they should have first allowed direct talks with us to reach somewhere before we could sit and talk to this crowd,8217;8217; he said. 8220;Our dialogue process with them New Delhi has not reached anywhere as yet, so how will expanding the dialogue to pro-India groups help at this stage8230;This roundtable is in any case a half circle as there is no representation from across the Line of Control.8217;8217;
However, the roots of the Hurriyat8217;s refusal, sources said, lie in the details of the talks process between India and Pakistan. Islamabad, sources say, is not happy about New Delhi8217;s 8220;non-concessive approach on Kashmir despite several flexible proposals coming from President Pervez Musharraf.8217;8217;
As both militancy and Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani have lost their 8220;favoured8221; status in Islamabad, moderate Hurriyat8217;s new affinity with Musharraf is becoming Islamabad8217;s only tool to armtwist New Delhi.
And Hurriyat moderates, who are already engaged in a direct dialogue with New Delhi, do not want to lose Pakistan8217;s blessings as well.
Then there is a domestic political challenge. Both the NC and PDP are rallying around Musharraf8217;s demilitarisation and self-rule slogan and the Hurriyat feels that the roundtable involving these two mainstream parties will hold the risk of mainstreaming the Hurriyat and divesting it of its distinct 8220;separatist identity.8221;
8220;We won8217;t run ourselves into a trap. We don8217;t understand what India hopes to achieve in a roundtable that it cannot in an institutionalised, structured dialogue with the separatists,8221; Hurriyat leader Bilal Lone said. 8220;This roundtable is nothing but an attempt to marginalise Hurriyat8221;.
Hurriyat moderates also want to usurp the hardline space of Syed Ali Shah Geelani8217;s faction especially as he and his party have fallen out of Pakistan8217;s favour.
with inputs from Riyaz Wani
