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Textile secretary Wajahat Habibullah's 'Mission Kashmir' is bad news for Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Mr Habibullah, who is known for his close links with 10, Janpath, has been roped in by the Prime Minister's Office to resume the deadlocked talks with the separatist leaders.
The development lends credibility to what was being widely speculated for weeks - that upset with Mr Patil's way of handling Jammu and Kashmir affairs, the PMO wants to directly monitor the situation.
For the past one month, the PMO had been directly involved in putting back on track the derailed Hurriyat talks. The Centre's interlocutor for J&K NN Vora, who reported to the Home Minister during the NDA era, was virtually sidelined, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special advisor MK Naryanan was working in close co-ordination with Mr Habibullah to conduct behind-the-scene parleys with the separatist leaders.
An IAS officer of the J&K cadre, Mr Habibullah was secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (1991-93) and known for his proximity with the former Prime Minister. He had worked in the PMO during the tenure of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Sources said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was personally interested in using Mr Habibullah's services for revival of Kashmir talks.
Sources said that even though Mr Habibullah will be exchanging inputs with the Home Minister on the progress of his mission, the PMO will have a greater say in dictating the decision-making process. In days ahead, the Home Ministry's role could be limited to deployment of security forces in the State, sources said. However, it is felt that the Government has taken the precaution not to officially shift the Department of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs to the PMO to save Mr Patil from embarrassment.
There has been an ongoing debate in the Government that the Department of Kashmir, presently under the Home Secretary, should be moved to the PMO because the Defence and External Affairs Ministries are also involved in the decision-making process concerning the state. The move to shift the Department of Kashmir to PMO also gained momentum because of the Home Ministry's failure to resume the dialogue process initiated by the previous NDA Government with the moderate Hurriyat factions.
By involving the PMO in the resumption of dialogue process, the Centre has also addressed a major concern of the separatist leaders, who wanted the talks to be upgraded with direct involvement of the Prime Minister.
Mr Habibullah has straight away got down to business. On Tuesday, he called on Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmad Shah in Srinagar, and held a close-door meeting with him for 20 minutes.
Even though the Centre had given the impression that Mr Habibullah's task was confined to bringing to the negotiation table only non-Hurriyat separatist leaders, he has also sought a meeting with breakaway Hurriyat faction leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Sources said that Mr Geelani has convened a meeting of his party's working committee on Wednesday to take a decision on Mr Habibullah's request for a meeting with him.
Incidentally, barely five months ago, Mr Habibullah had generated a major controversy by making pro-USA statements in resolving the Jammu and Kashmir imbroglio.
"Most Kashmiris regard the United States as an honest broker, an opinion rarely held in Muslim countries in the aftermath of 9/11. This view has also been expressed repeatedly in private by several members of the separatist leadership. In fact, Kashmiris credit all positive developments in the region over the past five years to efforts made by the United States," Mr Habibullah had said in a paper submitted to the United States Institute for Peace in April.
Mr Habibullah had also said: "Given the deep mistrust that Kashmiris have of India and their growing mistrust of Pakistan, the United States might find it advantageous to cultivate its positive image (especially now that that image is beginning to fray because of events in Iraq).
Now that the same man has emerged
as the UPA Government's interlocutor to revive the stalled dialogue
process with Jammu and Kashmir separatist leaders, it will be interesting
to watch how the Left parties accept the decision.
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