NEW DELHI: The Centre’s interlocutors report on Jammu and Kashmir, which recommends setting up a Constitutional Committee to review all central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India extended to the state after the signing of the 1952 Delhi agreement, has the potential to generate more controversy.
The 1952 Delhi agreement signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah laid down the terms of engagement between the central government and the J&K government.
The report of three interlocutors - Dilip Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari - made public on Thursday by the Home Ministry rules out return to pre-1953 position and stressed upon the review on the basis of three components, political, economic, social and cultural interest in all three regions of the state - Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
The report recommends that special status guaranteed to the state through Article 370 must be upheld. Successive governments have so far been firm and clear that J&K is an integral part of India and accession to the state was complete and final.
The Home Ministry, in a statement issued immediately after making the report public, said the views expressed in the report were of the interlocutors and not that of the government.
“The government has not yet taken any decisions on the report,” an official in the ministry said.
Meanwhile, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refused to comment on the interlocutors report and tweeted that he would take a few days to examine the report, discuss it with senior colleagues and then react.
The BJP made it very clear that the accession of J&K with India was complete and total and it would not accept any dilution of that premise.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said several prescriptions of the interlocutors mean a disaster for national unity and it should be thrown into waste basket.
The report did not get any praise from both moderate and hardline faction of Hurriyat. While moderate faction demanded a political solution, hardliners said they never recognised the existence of interlocutors.
The report had indicated that Pakistan and separatists were two major stakeholders for peaceful resolution of the issues and Pakistan should also come on board for long-lasting solution to the issue.