Dileep Padgaonkar edited The Times of India for six years, a job he once quipped was the second-most important job in the country.
A dialogue with Pakistan is as necessary as the dialogue with people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir issue which is a "bilateral dispute", Centre-appointed interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar said on Sunday.
Moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday confirmed that Dileep Padgaonkar, veteran journalist and one of the interlocutors appointed by the Centre for Kashmir, had called him for a meeting. "Dileep Padgaonkar called me on Thursday and requested a meeting, which I declined. I told Padgaonkar that it was our stand not to meet them as long as our demands are not met," the Mirwaiz said.
The panel of Kashmir interlocutors, which is winding up its visit to the troubled Valley, is scheduled to visit Jammu on Wednesday to continue 'their process of confabulation' with the cross-section of society.Padgaonkar said that he was 'satisfied with the Kashmir visit'. "We will be in Jammu tomorrow to continue our interaction with people," he said.
The interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday submitted their report to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram after their maiden visit to the state, with their leader Dileep Padgaonkar saying he is "hopeful" of a solution of the issue but did not have a "magic formula".
Ruling out a return to the pre-1953 position, Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir have favoured setting up a Constitutional Committee to review all Central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India to the state extended after 1952.
Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said there was a need for reducing the trust deficit between the government and the people, but confidence building measures and focus on development should not distract the pursuit of a political settlement. "CBMs and development should not distract from finding a political settlement to the Jammu and Kashmir problem while a political settlement should also not impede the development scenario," said Dileep Padgaonkar
The three-member team of interlocutors Sunday visited the Srinagar central jail, met the state police chief and the local editors besides a delegation of tribals.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar on Thursday expressed surprise that senior journalists like Kuldeep Nayyar, Dileep Padgaonkar and former Chief Justice of Delhi high court Justice Rajinder Sachhar did not know the credentials of Kashmiri-American lobbyist Ghulam Nabi Fai.
The Central interlocutors for Kashmir on Saturday said 'any outbreak of violence in the Valley would thwart the efforts for political settlement in the state.
Unlike their Kashmiri counterparts, the people of border region of Rajouri-Poonch are against the demand for azadi and division of Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre-appointed interlocutors for the state said on Sunday.
The interlocutors appointed by the Centre to look into a resolution of the Kashmir issue on Wednesday said that "prevailing peace in Kashmir is fragile and would continue to be so unless a political solution is arrived at". Ending their 11-month long tenure as central interlocutors on Kashmir, Dileep Padgaonkar, M M Ansari and Professor Radha Kumar held a joint press conference in Srinagar.
The three-member panel formed by the government to hold 'sustained dialogue' with the people of Jammu and Kashmir including separatists is expected to submit its report within a year.
The three-member panel of interlocutors on Kashmir met the families of the two sisters killed by terrorists in north Kashmir's Sopore town and a youth killed in an army ambush in Chogal village in Handwara town on Thursday.
The Kashmir interlocutors on Wednesday asked Bharatiya Janata Party to reconsider its plan to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day, fearing it could lead to law and order problems in the Valley.
Advocating "baby steps" for pushing forward the dialogue process on Jammu and Kashmir, Centre's interlocutors on Wednesday said besides interacting with all shades of opinion in the state, they had a huge task of taking all the stakeholders in the country on board.
"Any kind of solution... must be acceptable to all regions of J&K and to all sections of J&K people, and it should have complete endorsement of public opinion as is expressed in Parliament of India and only then can we carry things forward," Dileep Padgaonkar told reporters in Jammu before leaving for Delhi along with another interlocutor, Radha Kumar
The Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Monday met the ailing mother of jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah at his residence in Srinagar. Dileep Padgaonkar, the head of the panel, told reporters that the visit was a courtesy call as he had known Shah since a long time. During the meeting, Shah's wife Dr Bilqees referred to the 'frequent' arrest of her husband by the state authorities.
Citing the neighbouring country's support to terrorism as the reason behind the opposition, the party warned that the function will be disrupted if not cancelled.
Unfazed by the Shiv Sena protest and blackening of the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, the organisers went ahead with the launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Ahmed Kasuri's book Neither a Hawk, Nor a Dove at a function in Mumbai.
Amidst fracas over the launch of his book in Mumbai, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said that he is optimistic about peace between India and Pakistan and called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take forward Atal Bihari Vajpayee's work towards that end.
'It won't be easy to undo the damage that has been done to the economy by the lockdown and the solution will not come from two minute presentations,' observes Aakar Patel.
Sharma will decide whom he wants to hold talks with, Singh said when asked whether he would have dialogue with the Hurriyat Conference.
Delegates of a bilateral peace delegation urge the prime ministers of Pakistan and India to resume dialogue for peace and full normalisation of relations.
'The government is in no hurry to talk to the separatists and would like to approach the Kashmiri people directly through various other organisations.' 'Officials in charge of J&K affairs at the Centre are clear that there would be no let up in the operations against terrorists,' reveals BharatShakti.in founder Nitin A Gokhale.
After all the drama that preceded the book launch of former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book launch, the discussion that ensued on the book the same evening turned out to be a fiasco. Here's why
'The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, as recent events suggest, are quite content as New Delhi's collaborators rather than trying to be true representatives of the Kashmiri people,' says Athar Parvaiz.
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