Srinagar:Days after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the government was ready to talk but Hurriyat leaders refused to talk and snubbed all-party delegation in 2016, Hurriyat Conference (M) chairperson Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said there was “never any official invite or any attempt by the Government of India” to reach out to the Hurriyat.
He said New Delhi’s approach and agenda was military-driven, and that “there is absolutely no political process or thought in terms of dealing with Kashmir. They are dealing with Kashmir as we have seen in the last three or four years with an iron fist and their military policy is what is guiding BJPs policy on Kashmir,” Mirwaiz told Indian Express.
On the Centre’s special representative Dineshwar Sharma’s attempts at holding talks with the Hurriyat, Mirwaiz said, “This exercise is not going to yield anything because in the past also we have seen interlocutors and special representatives coming and giving their reports. All these reports have never been taken up by the Government of India.”
Mirwaiz underscored that the government needs to realise that blocking the space for conversation has led to a situation where “anger, hate and resentment against India has gone up” and “they accuse us of inciting stone-pelters and a whole misinformation campaign was launched against us, but the fact is that two years down the line, what is happening is much worse. See what is happening in South Kashmir with young boys, it is very painful for us. But that is what their policy is. It is very clear that this is what the BJP has in mind.”
Mirwaiz cautioned that by completely isolating and trying to marginalise the political players, the Hurriyat and JRL, “what they have done is that they have left that space open. That vacuum has created a situation where people have lost hope of any political movement forward. Dialogue has become a word people have lost trust in.”
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