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| Manmohan to resume mission Kashmir with more zest | | |
ABID SHAH
EARLY TIMES REPORT
NEW DELHI, May 18: Top level efforts to take on board all stake holders vis-à-vis the vexed issue of Jammu and Kashmir have been intensified amid reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may visit the border State in about a month's time which can also be as early as on June 7.
According to reports People's Democratic Party leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed called on Manmohan Singh here today and sought amnesty for those from the Valley who were being detained for political reasons.
Several peace gestures are supposed to have been discussed. And some of them have been becoming visible as well. A two-member team of Amnesty International has been allowed in the State after years of bar of sorts on the international organisation to collect details of human rights violation.
Yet, there have been certain signs of initiating the process of executing death sentence passed against Afzal Guru that was also confirmed by Supreme Court in the Parliament attack case of December 2001. Union Home Ministry has of late been pushing for turning down Guru's mercy petition and had pointed out that the file related to this has been gathering dust with the Delhi Government.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit has today said that Guru's file has been returned to Union Home Ministry. Indications are that the Chief Minister has added a rider by asking to assess law and order situation before going ahead with the execution.
Earlier, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily has indicated that Guru cannot be hanged right away since mercy petitions related to earlier court orders for death through hanging were still pending with the Government. So indications are that the orders against Guru that came into focus after the latest death sentence passed against Ajmal Kasab, the lone convict in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, may still take more time to be executed.
Another sign of stepped up diplomacy by Delhi came today when Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee advocated the need to increase cross border trade between India and Pakistan which among other things, according to him, could enlarge constituency of peace in the two countries and reduce tensions. For the first time after 26/11 Mumbai attack in 2008, Mukherjee used the term composite dialogue that India and Pakistan opted for in 2004. He said that this took the trade volume between the two countries up which has now again gone on decline. He was speaking at a seminar organized in Delhi by a leading group of newspapers here in collaboration with that of Pakistan.
These are definite indications of a push for peace in South Asia. And as for its impact on Jammu and Kashmir today Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is understood to have raised the issue of talks with Pakistan when he met Manmohan Singh. The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has consistently been pointing out that his State had suffered enormously for being caught between India and Pakistan which in even at best of the times are engaged in a bitter cold war.
When Manmohan Singh had last visited the border State along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and a few members of his Cabinet, Mufti Sayeed had shared the dais built to mark the start of a train on a new stretch of railway line in the Valley. The Prime Minister had extended an offer of talks with anybody who was interested in peace provided the violent recourse often supported by separatists was given up.
This was on October 28, 2009 when silent diplomacy once again became pronounced. Yet, this could not go far since Hurriyyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani remained sulking from joining or participating in the Delhi's initiative. Even now he does not appear to be in a mood to relent from the hard stance taken by him.
Yet, from Delhi's point of view keeping its engagement on with other players in State's politics is significant for these are the times when even Pakistan cannot afford to publicly stand along with hawks like Geelani because of America's pressure against Islamists that Islamabad at least ostensibly shares with the US.
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