Union Minister of State for Home Jitendar Singh has put all the speculations regarding the much hyped report submitted by three member panel of interlocutors on Kashmir to rest by stating that “Government is not planning any mechanism to implement the recommendations.”     
The three member high profile team comprising the veteran journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academic Radha Kumar, and former Chief Information Commissioner M M Ansari had made tall claims after they submitted the report to then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. For a longtime report was put in the cold storage and interlocutors remained tightlipped about its content. Somehow interlocutors persuaded the Ministry of Home Affairs to upload the report on its website. The claim of the interlocutors that the report would generate a debate across the country and would be discussed widely proved to be an illusion as not many people were impressed by the recommendations the team had made.
 The only party which raised hue and cry about the report was Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). It opposed the report tooth and nail. BJP going on chest beating mission after the report was released kept the report in limelight for sometime but eventually that phase got over.
At the first place one fails to understand why did New Delhi appoint interlocutors? What role were they assigned? And what is the end result of three member panel visiting Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh on numerous occasion during their one year tenure?
Apprehension of the separatists that interlocutors were appointed to buy time has proved correct. They were given full freedom to talk but on the paper they had no mandate. The GoI not taking their report seriously has made it clear that they were not given any specific task, and they were sent to JK to just without a mission.
After 2010 summer unrest uneasy calm has prevailed in the Valley and no one, including New Delhi, seems to be bothered about drafting a future course of action. New Delhi’s intransigence and cold approach towards Kashmir has made one thing amply clear that it wants peace to prevail in the Valley and for it New Delhi can go to any extent. In a peaceful Kashmir interlocutors and their report have no relevance.
It seems that New Delhi would go through the report if Kashmir starts burning again. Till then the report submitted by the three interlocutors would east dust in the library.
New Delhi formulating its Kashmir policy on day to day basis can have far reaching consequences. Think tanks seem to have started believing that “All is Well” in Kashmir and forces with unbridled powers can hold on to status-quo. Two consecutive years - 2011 and 2012 - passing off peacefully has made the belief firmer.
It is unfortunate that people in New Delhi are not realizing that Kashmir is not an administrative or law and order problem. It has got political dimensions which need to addressed. It seems violence and protests only make New Delhi think about Kashmir. When peace prevails it sleeps over the issue.
Had New Delhi been sincere it could have utilized the peace time to evolve a mechanism over Kashmir. Presently it seems in deep slumber and it appears that think tanks in New Delhi would wake up only when lull before the storm breaks.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST