M A I N   N E W S

Panel returns leaving behind hope, anxiety
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 22
They came, they saw, they listened, but did they conquer? Residents of the state are eagerly awaiting answer to this question as the 39-member all-party delegation left for Delhi this morning after a two-day visit to Srinagar and Jammu.

While differences were evident among delegation members on who to meet or not, the delegation definitely raised hope among residents by breaking free from the set schedule of meetings arranged by the Omar Abdullah-led National not intend to see the state through the prism of groups and organisations arranged by the state government.

Many organisations of Kashmiri Pandits, including the Panun Kashmir and the YAIKS, were not invited by the government, but a section of the delegation members went to their relief camp in Muthi. This erased fears that the members had come only to meet the separatists or anyone whom the government had lined up.

The delegation met separatist leader Shabir Shah despite opposition by the BJP. The meeting, however, seemed to be pre-arranged as Shabir was admitted to a private hospital hours before the delegation came.

Observers feel by reaching out to different communities, the delegation members have allayed fears that they were just part of a government-sponsored mechanism to buy time so that violence in Kashmir dies down or subsides.

Delegation members also courted controversy by speaking out of turn. While Ram Vilas Paswan said in Delhi today that the families of those killed in the Valley should be given Rs 20 lakh and a job each, another delegation member, S Siddiqui, had told Kashmir Pandits at the Muthi camp, Jammu, that there had been enough of violence in the Valley and now the government’s toleration to it had reached its limits.

The report of the delegation would have a major effect on the situation in the state in the coming days. Just a week is left for the Assembly session in Srinagar. The session, scheduled to begin on September 30, is already raising controversy with the Speaker rejecting a large number of questions submitted by the PDP. The questions were almost the same, but came through different members, sources said.