Stop ball-by-ball commentary on J&K dialogue: PC

NEW DELHI: Even as he credited the J&K interlocutors on somewhat changing the “discourse” in the state, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Monday sounded a word of caution for the three-member team, advising them not to give “ball-by-ball commentary” on the progress in the dialogue.

“I think media should not ask and interlocutors should not give a ball-by-ball commentary about their dialogue. This is interlocution. This is not a cricket match,” he said when asked about the interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar’s recent statement in a TV interview about militants’ willingness to submit a peace plan to the interlocutors.

Incidentally, the interlocutors — Mr Padgaonkar, Mr M M Ansari and Ms Radha Kumar — have courted controversy ever since they were set foot in J&K to start a dialogue to resolve all issues concerning the state. Their controversial remarks on involving of Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir problem and starting a debate on the “azaadi” option have invited adverse reactions from opposition parties like the BJP, which has repeatedly accused them of exceeding their brief. Of course, Mr Chidambaram had a word of caution for the BJP as well. “The BJP, if it wants the dialogue to proceed, should be more restrained and not make these baseless allegations,” he quipped.

Mr Chidamabaram, who presented the home ministry’s report card for October here on Monday, noted that the all-party delegation’s visit to J&K in September had brought about “a sense of expectation that the political problem of J&K will be addressed in all seriousness.”

Stating that the interlocutors had been able to change the “discourse” in the state, he hoped that the “people of the state will give peace and dialogue a chance.”

The home minister, who returned from a two-day visit to J&K only last night, said things were returning to normal in the state, “though it is too early to say that everything is normal.”