ANDALIB AKHTER
TIA
NEW DELHI: Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday asked centre’s interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir to refrain from giving running commentary on what they were doing in Kashmir and Delhi. He also blamed media for asking critical questions with interlocutors.
“The media should not ask and interlocutors should not give ball-by-ball commentary. They are there for interlocution, it is not a cricket match,” Chidambaram told media persons, while presenting his Ministry’s monthly progress report here.
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His observation came a day after Dileep Padgaonkar, eminent journalist and one of the three interlocutors, told a television channel that a member from a militant outfit had told them during their recent visit to the Valley that they might present to the interlocutors a road map for peace in the troubled State.
He however said that the interlocutors had, to some extent, changed the discourse in the State. “I sincerely hope that the people in the State will give peace a chance and give dialogue a chance,” he added.
Besides Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and Central Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari were appointed interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir on October 13. Their remarks have also been criticized by the opposition BJP.
The Home Minister who visited Ladakh region as well as Srinagar over the week-end said the situation in the Valley was “returning to normal.”
He said that after the recent visit of the all-party delegation to the State, “there is a sense of expectation that the political problem of Jammu and Kashmir will be addressed in all seriousness.”
He said the interlocutors had, to some extent, changed the discourse in the State. “I sincerely hope that the people in the State will give peace a chance and give dialogue a chance,” he added.
To an other query on the BJP’s criticism of remarks made by interlocutors, home minister said: “If the BJP wants the dialogue process to succeed, it should exercise restraint and not make these baseless allegations.”