Rajnath admits Centre started talks in 2016 ‘but Hurriyat closed doors’ | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Defense Minister Rajnath Singh revealed on Sunday that in September 2016 four Opposition MPs had tried to contact Leaders of the Hurriyat Conference as part of the central government‘s efforts to initiate peace talks in Kashmir. However separatist leaders refused to meet the delegation, Singh said while addressing an election rally in Ramban constituency in Jammu.
Singh, who was then Home Minister, recounted his conversations with the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti, and assured her that the situation in Kashmir would normalise. He also mentioned that a delegation of MPs, led by Singh himself, had visited the state during that period.
The delegation included senior leaders like Sharad Yadav of the JDU and representatives of Left parties. Singh had suggested that these leaders should engage in the Hurriyat conference as the BJP was not well received by the separatists. However, when Sharad Yadav and some Left leaders approached the Hurriyat leaders, they were received behind closed doors and refused to engage in dialogue with the country’s senior parliamentarians.
“There were senior leaders like Sharad Yadav (from JDU) and from Left parties (in the delegation). I told them that we are from BJP and Hurriyat people do not like us and they get irritated when they see us. You talk to them and tell them that we are ready to talk but there will be peace in Kashmir. After they asked me, Sharad Yadav and some Left leaders visited the Hurriyat conference leaders but they closed their doors to them and said that they will not talk to senior MPs from our country,” the Defence Minister said.
In his speech on Sunday, Singh also mentioned the filing of cases against Kashmiri youths involved in stone-throwing incidents following the death of Burhan Wani.
Singh said, “There were cases against young and innocent children and there were repeated demands from people to withdraw the cases. People were demanding withdrawal of cases against innocent and minor children and I spoke to Mehbooba and requested her to release them. We did everything but as they (Hurriyat leaders) should have responded, they did not,” Rajnath said.
This is the first time that the central government has acknowledged its efforts to reach out to separatists in 2016, a period marked by widespread protests in Kashmir following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. The admission comes despite the Narendra Modi government’s consistent public portrayal of a tough stance against separatists.
During the all-party delegation’s visit to the state in September 2016, amid violence that claimed 72 lives, four opposition members from the 26-member group broke away and visited the Srinagar residence of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was under house arrest. However, Geelani ignored the MPs and refused to open his doors.
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani did not let the MPs in, while then JDU leader Sharad Yadav and communist leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja waited at the door of his posh Hyderpora residence for about ten minutes before returning.
Singh had said at the time that the MPs had gone on their own, saying: “I want to clarify that some members of the all-party delegation went to meet Hurriyat leaders. We neither said no nor yes to their meetings (with separatists). You know what happened. I don’t want to go into details.”
He had further said, “But whatever information those friends gave us on their return, it can be said that it was not Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri value system). It cannot be called insaniyat (humanity). When someone starts talking and they reject it, it is also not jamhooriyat (democracy).”