“He’s a quiet man, a good guy and will surely do a good job of listening,” said A S Dulat of ex-IB Director Dineshwar Sharma, who has just been appointed by the NDA government as the interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir.
Dulat, who served as joint director of the Intelligence Bureau in Kashmir before moving on to become the chief of Research & Analysis Wing, and eventually working closely with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, believes Kashmir, which is at its worst phase, is in dire need of dialogue.
Ever since Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced Sharma’s appointment, it was unclear whether Dineshwar Sharma would engage with the Hurriyat leaders or not. The appointment of the interlocutor comes at a time when seven first and second-rung leaders of the Hurriyat are facing investigation and incarceration. “The first demand of the Hurriyat to Sharma will obviously be to release their co-workers. And frankly, I don’t think it’s a big deal. This has been done before and can be done again,” said Dulat. Sharma told Newslaundry he “will not be interfering with the process of the NIA (National Investigation Agency)” and “will have to first go and check the situation on the ground”. In response to this, Dulat said, “I think he will have to make smarter moves. Although what he saying is perfectly right as he’s been DIB until recently and one wouldn’t expect him to say anything different.” He also added that an interlocutor’s role was not to go ‘check the situation on ground’ but “the process of interlocution itself demands a change in the situation on ground”.
Senior BJP member Yashwant Sinha has led a five-member Concerned Citizen’s Group (CCG) to Kashmir for the past three years. Every year, after talking to different stakeholders as well as locals in Kashmir, Sinha and his team filed reports which made observations as well suggestions to the government regarding the situation in Kashmir. Sinha, in an interview to Newslaundry, said that his reports “have been dumped” by the government. Sinha, and his team have played the role of informal interlocutors in the Valley. They had already established a rapport with the separatists and begun a process of dialogue. Nevertheless, the BJP chose not to pay heed to the CCG reports. In response to this, Dulat said there was a point when he used to think Sinha was the best interlocutor for Kashmir. “But times have changed and this government doesn’t seem to have too much confidence in Sinha, which is sad considering it is his own party in power,” he said.
When asked if he would have liked to be the interlocutor, Dulat responded, “I would have loved to be the interlocutor in J&K but I think my time is over now. In our system it’s very clear, when you’re in, you’re in and when you’re out, you’re a ‘has been’. And I think poor Yashwant Sinha is also beginning to realise that.”
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