SRINAGAR, 9 Aug. 2011 : All is not well with the central interlocutors. Having failed to hold talks with the divided separatist camp, they are themselves engaged in infighting presently. Some days back it was M M Ansari versus Dileep Padgaonkar and now it is M M Ansari versus Radha Kumar.
Ansari publicly denounced Padgaonkar for attending Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai sponsored seminar in US. Now he has criticised Radha Kumar for taking part in Abdul Majeed Tramboo’s conference in Brussels. A media report from New Delhi had stated that Radha Kumar had sent her resignation to union home ministry, which later denied the reports. Even Padgoakar during a conversation with a local news agency, KNS, denied the reports regarding the resignation of Radha and said that they would submit the final report to the Centre in first week of October.
. Meanwhile, Radha Kumar has sought to defend herself for having attended the Brussels conference. She maintained that she had traveled to Brussels in September 2006, to participate in a conference on Kashmir on the instructions of the Indian government.
Attacked for participating in the conference, which was jointly organised by James Elles (member of European Parliament) and Majeed Tramboo, who, like Ghulam Nabi Fai, operates a Kashmir Centre in Brussels, Kumar told media that that she gave the Indian point of view on the Kashmir issue. "We also met with MEA before going and, of course, our Embassy in Brussels before, during and after the conference. They all felt our participation was useful, as India had (still has) a strategic partnership with the EU and it was felt to be important for independent Indians to put their points of view in what was clearly a heavily biased forum taking place in European Parliament."
This, she said, did not go down well at all with the Pakistan lobby in the EU Kashmir Centre. The outcome report barely mentioned her remarks, she said, "When the report of the conference was sent to me in draft form, I protested that my remarks had been excised, on which a sentence was inserted."
The government, she said, also asked her at the same time, to accompany Baroness Emma Nicholson, newly-appointed rapporteur for Kashmir, on a fact-finding trip to J&K. Nicholson was, then, deputy chairperson of European Parliament's foreign relations committee and her subsequent report was the first one from the European Parliament to castigate Pakistan for cross-border terrorism.
Tramboo joined other Pakistanis in attacking the report. In one article, he said, 'On her visit to Pakistan and AJK, the rapporteur did not involve any civil society or human rights organizations there. On the contrary, during her visit to India, she engaged herself with an Indian organization which is believed to be working for and on behalf of the Indian MEA. The director of this organisation traveled with the rapporteur throughout Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi."
Radha said, "I was warned that my name had come up in "jihadi chatter." I reported this to our government who investigated and felt the threat to me was not grave. They offered me protection which I refused feeling there was no need to strain government's resources, and not wanting my family to be worried."
Dismissing the rumours that Radha has resigned, Padgonkar said they would submit the final report to the center in first week of October.
“I talked to her (Radha) today only regarding final report as I needed some inputs from her. I won’t comment on the rumours of her resignation,” Padgonkar told KNS.
The 3-member team of interlocutors which consists of Padgonkar, Radha and M M Ansari will visit the state in the third week of August again. “We will try our best to meet separatists this time as they are the stakeholders. Where ever they want to meet us we are ready,” he told KNS.
Padgonkar said that the final report will be submitted in first week of October to the centre. He dismissed speculations of some media organizations about the report. “Nobody has seen the report yet and it is unethical and unprofessional to speculate about it,” he added.
The panel, appointed by the home ministry last year, has made 11 visits to the state so far and interacted with people in 18 out of 22 districts.
Upset over the remarks of Ansari regarding her participation in ISI sponsored conferences on Kashmir in Brussels, Radha had reportedly written to Home Minister P Chidambaram following “the smear campaign” by her colleague Ansari.
“I’m angry with Ansari’s remarks. It appears he is indulging in some smear campaign,” Radha was quoted as saying by a national news agency.
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/news.aspx?ndid=13890&ct=srinagar
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