‘Sending parliamentary delegations served no purpose in past'

Mudassir Ahmad

SRINAGAR: With various political parties demanding the centre to send a parliamentary delegation to the Valley, the recommendations of the previous delegations have remained confined to papers without any implementation.

Valley is seething with anger during the ongoing crisis in Kashmir the unrest that broke out on July 8. Various political parties have been demanding that centre should send a parliamentary delegation to Kashmir to assess the situation and suggest the measures to the New Delhi to calm down the situation. The Congress, CPI (M) and various other parties have asked the Union government to send a parliamentary delegation to Kashmir amid the ongoing unrest in the Valley to revive the situation and get feedback from various sections of people.

Senior Congree leader P Chidambaram Tuesday said all party delegation should be sent to J&K. The opposition parties in the state have made similar demand.

This is not for the first time when there is a demand from political parties for sending of parliamentary delegation to Kashmir, but during the crisis time such delegations were sent many a times and had submitted their report to the centre on which as per sources no action was taken. Observers believe that centre should now think differently how to diffuse the tension in the Valley.

During 2008, when there was agitation over Amarnath land row, an 18-member all-party delegation, headed by the then Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, had visited the state on August 9, 2008, to review the situation and had submitted its recommendations to the centre for lasting peace in Jammu and Kashmir. But no action has been taken on their recommendations.

Similarly in 2010, when there was unrest for three months in which 120 youth were killed, a parliamentary delegation had met cross sections of people including separatists and had suggested various measures, but no action has been taken so far. A meeting of all parties headed by the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was held in which valuable suggestions on and ways and means to resolve the vexed issues were given. Both in 2008 and 2010, mainstream parties and people from various sections of people had demanded release of all political prisoners, removal/withdrawal of bunkers and other security establishments from all civilian areas.

The parliamentary delegations had also mentioned these points in their reports which they submitted to the centre for lasting peace in the Valley. But sources said all these reports are gathering dust with no action been taken by New Delhi.

A three member team of interlocutors was appointed on October 13, 2010 consisted of senior Journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and former Information Commissioner M M Ansari  submitted a report to the Home Ministry around March 2012. Since then the report has not been discussed.