By IANS,
Jammu : Jammu-centric political parties are boycotting the meeting with former interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir who are touring the state to get feedback on their report submitted to the government aimed at showing a way forward to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Panthers Party, Jammu State Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party and groups like Shiv Sena, Bajramg Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have announced a boycott of a meeting of two of the three former interlocutors presently here.
Panthers Party legislator Harshdev Singh said the report submitted by the interlocutors “does not carry anything to address the years of discrimination against Jammu region and has no mention about our concerns over the neglect of the region in all spheres”.
Also boycotting Dileep Padgoankar and Radha Kumar is the BJP whose spokesman Jitendra Singh said: “The report favours separatists and questions the integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India and has inadequate reference of discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions. Hence we are boycotting their meeting.”
Describing the report of the interlocutors as “anti-national and anti-Jammu,” Jammu State Morcha legislator Ashwini Kumar announced the boycott of the former interlocutors.
Thakur Randhir Singh of NCP too complained about the discrimination vis-a-vis Jammu.
A Congress delegation and people of some social groups Sunday met the former interlocutors and presented their views on the report submitted by them.
A group of three interlocutors — Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari — was formed in October 2010.
After extensive deliberations with the political parties, the government, members of civil society and others except the separatists, the interlocutors submitted their report to Home Minister P. Chidambram in October 2011 suggesting a way forward to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has described the report as an “exhaustive exercise of its kind”.
He said: “The report should form the basis to initiate a dialogue between the central and state governments and pave the path for meeting the aspirations of the people of the state on the basis of a broader consensus that emerges from the process of internal dialogue.”
The feedback on the report Padgaonkar and Radha Kumar are collecting will be submitted to home ministry.