New Delhi/Srinagar, August 17
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s invite to Kashmiri separatists for talks ahead of the Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level meeting on August 25 seems to have sparked a political debate over the purpose of such high-level talks.

The Congress questioned as to why India was going ahead with talks when the Pakistan envoy was holding a parallel meeting with separatists. Union Minister and BJP leader Najma A Heptulla said the High Commissioner’s action could hamper the ‘good’ atmosphere built for the dialogue process. "You have the Pakistan High Commissioner calling separatist leaders for talks. Where has the diplomacy gone? Is this government going to endorse the behaviour of Pakistan?" Tewari said while addressing the media in New Delhi. He said the government should explain the nature of the likely meeting between Basit and the separatists.

Former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid accused the government of double standards. "The BJP had been constantly saying that terror and talks cannot go hand in hand. Is that all forgotten," Khurshid asked.

In Srinagar, while responding to a query whether Basit’s invitation to the separatists would hamper the atmosphere built for talks, Heptulla said: "Yes, certainly…the atmosphere is getting good from our side and now we have to see how good their intentions are."

“If their (Pakistan’s) intention is good, it surely will break the ice. The intention of our leader (Modi) is good…otherwise he would not have invited (Pakistan Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharief in his oath ceremony. There has been a forward movement from our side but it takes two to tango," she said.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh will be in islamabad on August 25 for talks with her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad.

Reports emerging from Srinagar said Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq along with chairman of the hardline faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani and senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, who floated the third faction of the amalgam last year, had been invited for consultations by the Pakistan High Commissioner.

Pro-independence JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik has not been invited. "We have not received any communication from the Pakistan High Commission," a spokesman of the JKLF said in Srinagar.

Pakistan envoys have in the past, too, talked to separatists before any major diplomatic initiative with India.

Earlier, addressing a conference organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Foundation (JKPF), Hepatulla said the situation in Kashmir would have been ‘different’ had Atal Bihari Vajpayee won elections in 2004.

Asserting that Modi was treading the path of Vajpayee, Heptulla said by inviting SAARC leaders he wanted all South Asian countries to come together and move forward.

Stating that the Kashmir Pandit community had suffered a lot, she hoped that the sops announced by the Centre would ensure their return to the Valley.