Author: Navin Upadhyay
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 20, 2004
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.
