M A I N   N E W S

Uma Bharti resigns

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (UNI) — BJP leader and former Union Minister Uma Bharti today resigned from the Lok Sabha, saying she was quitting politics for good.

She also resigned from the working committee of the BJP. The unpredictable sanyasin sent her resignation from the Lok Sabha to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with a request that it be forwarded to the Speaker of the lower House. In a covering letter addressed to Mr Vajpayee, Ms Bharti requested that her resignation from Parliament and the party working committee be allowed to take effect immediately. Ms Bharti had arrived here this evening from Tikamgarh in MP, and later left for Vrindavan. Ms Bharti said she had decided to resign on May 7 after her protest fast against the retrenchment of daily wagers in Madhya Pradesh failed.

Hurriyat leaders in Delhi 
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 — The Chairman of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, Mr Abdul Ghani Bhat, is arriving in the Capital on a brief visit. He is accompanied by senior leaders, including Mr Syed Ali Shah Geelani, former Chairman of the conference.

The visit is taking place at a time when the Hurriyat has offered to open separate lines of communication with India and Pakistan to resolve the vexed Kashmir issue. Amid reports that there are differences among the Hurriyat leadership on the dialogue proposal, the Centre seemed to have adopted a policy of wait and watch. The Centre is yet to come out with a categorical response to the Hurriyat’s proposal.

A Hurriyat spokesman said here the Chairman and other leaders were coming to Delhi to visit the JKLF leader, Mr Yasin Malik, who is undergoing treatment in a hospital here. Declining to give a time frame for the Hurriyat chairman’s visit, the spokesman said details would be known only after the leaders arrived. Though the Chairman is arriving ostensibly on a brief visit, he could be in Delhi till some concrete proposal on the talks materialises.

During their stay here the Hurriyat leaders are likely to gauge the response of the Indian Government and international community to the proposal of separate talks with India and Pakistan. With the Kashmiris supporting moves towards peace, pressure is mounting on all groups in the valley to find a lasting solution to the issue which has kept the state in turmoil for more than a decade.

There have been reports of a renewed efforts of a dialogue between the Hizbul Mujahideen and the government and also of a possible split in the largest militant organisation in the state. The Centre has made it known several times that it is willing to talk to any group working towards peace in Kashmir. It also expressed the hope that channels of communication with the Hizbul would reopen soon.

The Hurriyat chief’s visit, significant for its timing, can achieve a major breakthrough on talks in Kashmir. The Hurriyat had faced criticism over its vacillating stand on the Hizbul’s recent ceasefire. After initially calling the ceasefire as hasty, the conference had welcomed it before reverting back to its first stand. There have been signs that some Kashmiri groups, including a section of the Hizbul, are thinking of taking a stand independent of the ISI to move forward on the Kashmir issue.