The Modi government’s initiative of reopening the dialogue process to restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir is being seen with cynicism in the Valley where the opposition parties are questioning fate of reports of the earlier interlocutors and working groups.

The buzz in the Valley is that instead of wasting time in holding another long-stretched dialogue, it would be worthwhile if the Centre spares some time to fetch the earlier reports gathering dust and present these in the Parliament for further discussion.

The people have reason to doubt intentions of the Centre as reports of the five working groups and two separate groups of interlocutors appointed during the past 10 years were gathering dust in the Home Ministry.

President of the National Conference that is the main opposition, Farooq Abdullah, told The Statesman over the phone from Srinagar on Tuesday that instead of wasting time on preparing a new document, the Centre should study the earlier reports of the working groups and interlocutors and present these before the Parliament for implementation.

He said that differences among the ministers of Modi’s cabinet on the issue of dialogue have appeared even before Dineshwar Sharma, a former director of intelligence bureau who has been appointed the new interlocutor, started his work. While Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that Sharma will talk to everyone without any pre-conditions, but the minister of state in the PMO, Jitendera Singh created a controversy by announcing that no talks will be held with the Hurriyat leaders.

Farooq Abdullah wondered what problem the Modi government had in implementing reports of the earlier interlocutors. Kashmir is a political dispute and it cannot be sidelined by announcing development projects. The three member interlocutors’ group led by Dilip Padgaonkar had prepared a comprehensive report after meeting cross section of society in all the three regions of the state but it has been pushed under the carpet.

He said that theCentre had realised that the Kashmiris cannot be suppressed by sending security forces in the Valley.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, while welcoming the initiative, said dialogue is need of the hour to go ahead.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said “ the acceptance of the political nature of the Kashmir issue is a resounding defeat of those who could only see use of force as a solution”.

Commenting on Rajnath’s statement that Dineshwar Sharma will look into the legitimate aspirations of the people, Omar said “the legitimate aspirations of people of J&K is an interesting formulation. Who gets to decide what is legitimate?”

CPiI-M MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami welcomed the central initiative and said that the process should be made credible by involving all stakeholders and it should be ensured that the report of the new interlocutor does not meet the same fate as that of the earlier ones.

It is worth mentioning that the centre had in October 2010 named a group of three interlocutors to hold sustained dialogue with all section of the people of J-K. They were noted journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, Prof MM Ansari and Prof Radha Kumar.

The final report of the panel ruled out return to the pre-1953 position and recommended setting up of a constitution committee to review all Central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India extended to the state after the signing of the 1952 Agreement.

Before that, NN Vohra, present Governor of J-K, was appointed interlocutor by the then NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003 to talks with the stakeholders in J-K. Another such initiative was taken when a former minister KC Pant was appointed as interlocutor.

The reports of the five Working Groups on Kashmir appointed during the UPA regime in 2006 have also got lost under the files of the North Block. Reports of the groups headed by Justice Saghir Ahmad and Hamid Ansari on the political and legal aspects were considered important.

Besides these initiatives, the National Conference and the PDP had come out with their own proposals for greater autonomy and self-rule respectively to meet the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.