New Delhi, October 22
In a significant tactical move for finding an acceptable resolution of the Kashmir issue, the Centre today deputed Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to hold talks with the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a decision welcomed by its chief Moulvi Abbas Ansari.

The decision was taken at a nearly two-hour meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) presided over by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Briefing newspersons, Home Secretary N. Gopalaswami said the CCS took note of Ansari’s statement of August 25 in which he had expressed the desire to hold talks with the Centre.

It was decided that Mr Advani would start negotiations with the Hurriyat leaders, he added.

Asked when and where the talks would be held, Mr Gopalaswami said these matters would be decided later. The Home Secretary, however, said the talks would be held only after Diwali and other festivities were over. Asked why the Centre had decided to hold talks with the Hurriyat after showing reluctance for so long, Mr Gopalaswami said: “For everything, there is a time.”

The CCS meeting was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pandey, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and Centre’s interlocutor on Kashmir N.N. Vohra.

Meanwhile, the Hurriyat chairman, who was in Delhi, said, “It is a welcome step. The decision should have been taken earlier. However, better late than never.”

Ansari said he would leave for Srinagar tomorrow to convene a meeting of the Hurriyat executive council, the highest decision-making body of the separatist conglomerate, to chalk out its response to the Centre’s decision.

“The meeting will be held tomorrow itself,” he said. The Hurriyat chairman said the agenda for the talks needed to be discussed by the two sides before the negotiations began.

“Meaningful talks are the best and the only way to resolve the vexed Kashmir issue,’’ he said.

“We have been calling for talks ... though Mr Advani’s appointment has come a little late but it is a good step,” Mr Ansari told PTI over phone from Delhi.

Mr Ansari, however, said the Hurriyat executive would meet to take a final decision on whether to hold talks with Mr Advani or not.

“We have to be invited for the talks and we have to see what Mr Advani wants to talk about. The agenda of the talks with the Deputy Prime Minister will decide the future course of action of the Hurriyat Conference,” he said.

Mr Ansari said, “I hope that the Government of India has realised the futility of appointing interlocutors like Mr K.C. Pant and N.N. Vohra”.

Mr Advani’s appointment seems to signal the seriousness of Government of India in resolving the Kashmir issue,” he added.

Meanwhile, breakaway Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today said his group did not have much hopes from the talks between Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and separatist leader Mohammad Abbas Ansari on the Kashmir issue as they would be held in the backdrop of the 1994 Parliament resolution on Kashmir.

“Mr Advani had made it clear that whenever the Centre will hold talks with the Kashmiri separatists, the talks would be held in the light of 1994 resolution adopted by the Indian Parliament declaring Kashmir as its integral part. We do not have much hopes from them,” Mr Geelani said in his reaction to the Centre’s decision authorising Mr Advani to hold talks with Mr Ansari.

He said he did not attach much importance to the talks as they would be held in the light of the recent statement of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Panipat that the people of J&K had acceeded to India and that the issue pending solution related to one-third of the state illegally occupied by Pakistan.

However, he said the Hurriyat believed in resolution of Kashmir issue through meaningful and result-oriented dialogue.

Meanwhile describing the appointment of Mr Advani to hold talks with the Hurriyat Conference on the Kashmir problem as a “golden opportunity”, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today expressed hope that the separatists would respond positively to the development.

Mr Sayeed said it was the “happiest day” for him since coming to power last year as the demand of the people for talks at the highest level had been fulfilled.

Asked about separatist leader Geelani’s rejection of the offer, Mr Sayeed said rejection was not in the favour of people.

Welcoming Mr Advani’s appointment, the Opposition National Conference said it was on the expected lines as the party had been pressing for initiation of dialogue to resolve the issue once for all.