By IANS,
Jammu : Activists of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Sunday attempted to thrash former interlocutor Dileep Padgoankar when he was en route to meet Congress partymen here to get their feedback on a report presented by interlocutors October last year.
The report aimed at showing the way forward to a resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
The BJYM – a youth wing of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) – is boycotting the meeting between two former interlocutors in Jammu Sunday.
They were protesting the report for being “anti-national and anti-Jammu”.
“They (the protesters) will have to face action,” said police.
The state BJP is also boycotting Padgoankar and another interlocutor, academician Prof. Radha Kumar.
State BJP spokesperson Jitendra Singh said: “The report favours separatists and questions integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India, mentions Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan Administered Kashmir and has inadequate reference of discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh region. Hence we are boycotting their meeting.”
All Jammu-centric political parties are also boycotting the meeting.
The former interlocutors are touring the state to garner feedback from a cross-section of people on their report submitted to the union home ministry last year.
Senior leader of the Panthers Party and MLA Harshdev Singh said the report “does not carry anything to address the years of discrimination against Jammu region and has no mention about our concerns for neglecting the region in all spheres”.
Describing the report of interlocutors as “anti-National and anti-Jammu,” Jammu State Morcha MLA Ashwini Kumar also announced the boycott of the meeting with Padgaonkar and Kumar.
Thakur Randhir Singh, head of the state Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also announced a boycott on the grounds that the report had no mention of discrimination with Jammu.
A Congress party delegation and social groups Sunday met the two former interlocutors to give their opinions on the report.
A group of three interlocutors – Padgaonkar, Kumar and former Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari – was formed October 2010.
After extensive deliberations with political parties, the Jammu and Kashmir government, members of civil society and others (except separatist groups), the interlocutors submitted their report to the then union home minister P. Chidambram in October 2011.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday said that the report has been formulated after consultation with different groups across the state and discussions with various shades of opinion has made this report an “exhaustive exercise of its kind in the last two decades”.
Abdullah said: “The report should form the basis to initiate a dialogue between the centre and the state and pave the path of meeting the aspirations of the people of the state on the basis of a broader consensus that emerges from the process of internal dialogue.”
There was no action on the report after it was submitted in October 2011 and made public in May 2012.
After meeting Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Padgaonkar and Kumar are seeking feedback on the report from political parties and members of civil society in Srinagar on Aug 29 and in Jammu Aug 2 to Sep 4.
The feedback will be submitted to union home ministry.