‘Sharma can succeed only if report tabled in Parliament’

SRINAGAR/MUMBAI: Veteran politician Farooq Abdullah said that efforts of the Centre’s special representative for Kashmir can move forward only if Dineshwar Sharma’s final report is tabled in the two Houses of Parliament for discussion.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, who was re- elected president of the National Conference — the state’s main opposition party — stressed that New Delhi also needed to explain what it wished to achieve by appointing Sharma as a special representative for talks on Kashmir.

Different voices emerging from power corridors had reduced him to a “zero” even before he could start the talks, he said.

The 80-year-old veteran said he had never been against talks, but was “baffled by the lack of clarity” on the Centre’s move.

“Even before he (Sharma) was to visit the Valley, there were different voices emerging from New Delhi including that from the minister in Prime Minister’s Office (Jitendra Singh) who said Sharma was not an interlocutor,” the ex-chief minister said.

Dineshwar Sharma’s mandate, he added, was not clear to

Delhi needs to explain what it wishes to achieve by appointing Dineshwar Sharma as a special representative for talks on Kashmir. FAROOQ ABDULLAH, Ex-J&K CM

anybody in Kashmir.

“So we are confused about what he is and what his agenda is going to be,” the Lok Sabha member said.

When asked why he did not meet Sharma, who was on a four-day visit to the Valley last week, Abdullah replied, “I thought it’s of no use until Delhi makes it clear that he has some powers and that whatever he finally recommends will be taken up in Parliament. That is the only way forward.”