Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 29: Former Interlocutors—Dileep Padgaonkar and Prof Radha Kumar arrived in Srinagar this morning on a six days tour of the State and held detailed inter-actions with Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had assigned the task to former Interlocutors to get feedback on their report from political leaders, civil society etc and report to him.
The Interlocutors—Mr Padgaonkar, Ms Kumar and MM Ansari—had submitted their report to the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on October 12 last year. Since then, there had been no action on the report.
After their arrival in Srinagar, Mr Padgaonkar and Ms Kumar met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan and had an hour long meeting with him.
They briefed the Governor about the developments since they submitted report to the Centre and their present visit to the State. They said they planned to meet various important segments of society for obtaining meaningful inputs with regard to their recommendations made in the report.
In the evening, the former Interlocutors met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and had a detailed interaction with him on their report and purpose of their visit to get feedback on it.
Omar told the Interlocutors that their report has been formulated after consultation with different groups across the State and discussion with various shades of opinion as such making it one of the most exhaustive exercise of its kind in the last two decades.
He said the report of such a nature will necessarily evoke divergent views and reactions among the cross section of people, who may argue differently, but an effort was required to be made so that the differences could be narrowed down and the majority of the people are unified on the broader contours of the political resolution.
The Chief Minister further said that the report should form the basis to initiate a dialogue between the Centre and the State and pave the path of meeting the aspirations of the people of the State on the basis of a boarder consensus that emerges from the process of the internal dialogue.
Mr Padgaonkar and Ms Kumar would be holding a meeting of senior political leaders and civil society etc at SKICC Srinagar tomorrow. They would also meet some leaders individually. However, there was no input so far whether they would also meet the separatists or not. During their one year term as Interlocutors, the separatists had refused to meet them.
The former Interlocutors would hold a similar meeting in Jammu on September 2 for which invitations have been extended to a cross section of society including prominent leaders of all political parties, advocates, industrialists, businessmen etc.
They would spend three days each in Srinagar and Jammu. Sources said the former Interlocutors would also be paying courtesy calls to some prominent leaders in the Government and other people during their six days visit to the State. Significantly, this was first visit of former Interlocutors to Jammu and Kashmir after the expiry of their one year term on October 12, 2011, when they had submitted their report to Mr Chidambaram.
Third Interlocutor MM Ansari was not accompanying Mr Padgaonkar and Ms Kumar, who had extended invitations to the political leaders and civil society members on behalf of Delhi Study Group.
Sources said the Interlocutors would be submitting a report to the Union Home Minister on feedback obtained by them on their report, which was formally made public by the Centre on May 24.
The report of the Interlocutors had recommended setting up of a Constitutional Committee to review all Acts and Articles of the Constitution extended to Jammu and Kashmir and upholding of Article 370 of the Constitution granting special status to the State.
The 176 page report had ruled out return of the State to pre-1953 position or grant of autonomy and self-rule, the major demands of ruling National Conference and main opposition, the PDP.
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