Senior Cabinet Minister denies talks with Pakistan on Kashmir

The mandate of the Centre’s newly appointed Special Representative on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, will be to hold dialogue with all stakeholders in the country, but will not involve Pakistan, a senior Cabinet Minister told The Hindu.

The senior Minister said that talking to a “third party” to resolve the Kashmir issue was “out of question.”

On Monday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced that the former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director Dineshwar Sharma would be the Centre’s representative to carry forward a dialogue with all sections of people in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that “normalcy returns to the State as soon as possible”.

The Minister said the announcement would have no bearing on the security operations in the Kashmir Valley and there would be no let-up in such operations. “Kashmir is an integral part of India. Why should we talk to a third party [Pakistan] on Kashmir? Such suggestion is out of question,” he said.

Mr. Sharma told The Hindu on Tuesday that he would visit the Kashmir Valley in the next 10 days. “It will be an exploratory visit. I will go there and see who all to talk,” Mr. Sharma said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rajnath Singh, while responding to a question on whether Mr. Sharma will engage with separatists, reiterated that it was his decision who he wanted to engage with. The Minister dodged questions by reporters on what signals the Indian government sought to send to Pakistan with the appointment of the interlocutor.

Not ‘interlocutor’

In a departure from the past, the government refrained from using the term “interlocutor” while announcing the initiative on Monday. A senior official said it was because Mr. Sharma might hold “Track-II” and “informal dialogue”.

The Cabinet Secretary rank would ensure that officials take him seriously.