'India has attached too many red lines to dialogue process'

ISLAMABAD: Former India-appointed interlocutor on Kashmir and policy analyst, Radha Kumar, has said that the Indian government has attached too many red lines to the dialogue process, which was an act of foolishness.

Radha Kumar, who was part of a three-member group appointed to assess the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir by the former Congress government in an interview said the dialogue has not even started, but there have been too many red lines attached with the talks, KMS reported.

In October 2010, the Indian government had appointed a group of three interlocutors that included Radha Kumar, senior journalist Dileep Padgaonkar and former information commissioner M M Ansari to hold sustained dialogue with all sections of the people in the state.

Last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Delhi appointed former information bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma to hold talks with all stakeholders in Kashmir.

The pro-freedom groups have refused to talk to the interlocutor, saying the Indian government does not recognise Kashmir as a dispute.

Questioning government move, Kumar asked if it was needed to appoint a new interlocutor when she along with other the two other panel members had already prepared a report to address the Kashmir dispute.

Ascribing the new appointment to political one-upmanship, Kumar said, “There was a new government in Delhi.

So it is obvious that our recommendations will not be implemented by the present government.

“I can’t imagine that our recommendations will be taken by this government.
If the government was not ready to act on our recommendations, in that sense, why will the BJP government?” the former interlocutor asked.

She said the appointment of Sharma was a realisation that Delhi needed to talk to Kashmiris to address the Kashmir problem.