The Hindu : Advani-Hurriyat meet likely around Christmas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003

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National

Advani-Hurriyat meet likely around Christmas

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi Nov. 25 . The proposed dialogue between the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference is most likely to take place around Christmas. This tentative timetable was decided upon at a meeting last evening of the "co-ordination group". The invitation to the Hurriyat's leaders is likely to go out in the next few days, indicating Mr. Advani's availability soon after the Parliament session ends on December 21.

Among those who attended the "co-ordination group" meeting were the Union Home Secretary, N. Gopalaswamy, the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, the Director, Intelligence Bureau, K.P. Singh, the Secretary (R), C.D. Sahay, the Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office, A.S. Dullat, and the Centre's Designated Interlocutor, N. N. Vohra.

Indications available to the "co-ordination group" are that the Hurriyat leaders are in no great hurry to start the dialogue. One view in the Hurriyat is that the dialogue should wait till after the SAARC meeting in Islamabad in the first week of January 2004. That meeting could provide the operative context of the Advani-Hurriyat dialogue. If the Islamabad meeting produces good vibrations, even if there is no Vajpayee-Jamali/Musharraf summit, it would augur well for the dialogue.Also, the Hurriyat leaders are known to be keen on a later date because they feel that they need some more time to build a durable consensus within the Kashmiri public opinion on the need for dialogue as well as on the content of the dialogue with New Delhi. The leaders are reported to be anxious to deepen the public mood in favour of a dialogue with Mr. Advani, given the pronounced opposition from the hardline camp among the separatists, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. So far, the leaders have also not received any indication whether the APHC-Advani dialogue would have Islamabad's blessings.

Within the Vajpayee Government, a section is anxious that the dialogue should start sooner than later. Even Mr. Advani is reported to be not averse to the idea of finding a Saturday or Sunday during the December 2-December 21 Parliament session to kickstart the talks. However, given the Hurriyat's own inclination for a later date, it seems that the talks would begin only around Christmas time.

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