Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 11: A delegation led by former Union Minister, Yashwant Sinha, which is on its second visit to Kashmir after the outbreak of unrest, today visited South Kashmir and held talks with civil society members.
The delegation, which arrived in Valley in the month of September for the first time and met both hardline and moderate separatists spearheading the agitation to break the ice, today visited Southern districts, which have seen worst violence for last 5 months.
The delegation called on wider section of people including traders for over three hours. Sinha told reporters that people of Kashmir have a “great respect” for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and claimed that “a solution to the core issue lies in the lines drawn by Vajpayee which should be put forth”.
Sinha said they don’t have a Government mandate but maintained that the things can be solved only through dialogue and not bullets. “As a concerned citizen of India, I come here and wish to talk to people and recommend what should be done. I could see in Kashmir that people respect Vajpayee a lot and I believe that his doctrine needs to be taken up,” he said.
Sinha reiterated that his visit shouldn’t be misunderstood as it was not part of any political agenda, but they have come here to empathize with the people of Kashmir. The civil society and other players who met Sinha asked him to play his “influential role in taking Kashmir out of the prevailing crisis and help in getting the issue solved which is pending since decades”.
The civil society members and other stakeholders also presented a two-page representation to the delegation detailing about the situation that Kashmir has faced all these years. The civil society members, traders, intellectuals and other sections of the society who met Sinha led delegation made it very clear to them that by denying the very existence of the Kashmir issue will not help moving forward.
Meanwhile, former Chief Information Commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah, who is part of the Sinha-led delegation, said they aren’t in Valley to solve Kashmir issue “but to win the hearts of Kashmiris”. “We are here to mediate and act like a bridge between New-Delhi and Srinagar to evolve a mechanism and bring all the stakeholders on the talking table,” he told over phone.
Asked why Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik, refused to call on delegation even as hardliners meet them, he said: “Yasin is my good friend. But why he refused to meet us as a delegation is something only Yasin will be able to answer.”
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