Karan Singh declines comment on interlocutors’ report

By IANS,

Jammu : Member of the erstwhile royal family of Jammu and Kashmir and senior Congress leader Karan Singh Friday refused to comment on the report of the three interlocutors on Kashmir, saying that he had not read the report.


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“It will be improper on my part to comment on the report without having gone through it,” said Karan Singh, who was Sadr-e-Riyasat (head of state) of Jammu and Kashmir.

“It should be appreciated that the interlocutors had put in a lot of hard work and met several hundred people before documenting the report,” he told reporters here.

Three interlocutors – journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar, and former information commissioner M.M. Ansari – were appointed after the Kashmir Valley witnessed massive protests and the killing of over 100 people in October 2010. They submitted their report to union Home Minister P. Chidambaran in October 2011, and it was made public Thursday.

The report called for a review of post-1952 central laws in Jammu and Kashmir. This observation has evoked sharp reactions from Jammu-centric political groups which protested against the report.

“It is unacceptable. How can one reverse the clock,” Harshdev Singh of the National Panthers Party told reporters. He added: “How can one can talk of journeying back to the mid-twentieth century in the twenty-first century?”

Equally strong reactions came from BJP leaders. Ramesh Arora, BJP spokesperson in Jammu and Kashmir said: “The interlocutors have triggered new controversies rather than showing a road map that could lead to a solution.”

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