New Delhi
The Central Government today announced initiating a “sustained dialogue process” in troubled Jammu and Kashmir and appointed former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor to engage “all sections of people” to find a “lasting solution” to the vexed problem.

Kashmir experts in the government feel the dialogue is likely to give positive results as the Centre’s “hot pursuit” in the state over the past two years has reached a “threshold level”.

Talking to The Tribune, a senior Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official, directly involved in the process, said: “The sustained hot pursuit has brought the state to a threshold level, where a meaningful dialogue can take place.”

Announcing the decision at a hurriedly convened press conference this afternoon, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Sharma had been mandated to hold talks with all sections of people and organisations.

On whether Sharma would engage separatist leaders in the talks, Singh clarified that the former IB chief, who will hold the rank of a Cabinet Secretary, would have complete independence in deciding who to hold talks with. He, however, said no time-frame had been set as the issue was sensitive.

“The Centre has shown conviction and consistency on the Kashmir issue and carrying forward this policy, we have decided to begin a sustained dialogue policy for Jammu and Kashmir. And for this, we have decided to appoint Dineshwar Sharma as a special representative of the Government of India,” Singh said, while recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address during which he had said the problems in Jammu and Kashmir could be solved “neither by bullet, nor by abuses, but by embracing the people”.

The Home Minister said Modi had held a series of meetings with political representatives on the Kashmir issue. “All of them were clear that the process of dialogue should begin in the Valley,” he added. Sharma, a 1979-batch retired officer of the Indian Police Service, served as Intelligence Bureau Director from December 2014 to 2016.

Earlier, he was the Joint Director of the IB’s Islamist Terrorism Desk from 2003 to ’05. He headed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir and was the director of the BSF Academy, and Additional Director and Special Director in the IB.

Asked whether a police officer was capable of holding talks on such a sensitive issue, Singh said: “What’s wrong in that? He is an apolitical person, which is a great advantage. Besides, he is well aware of the internal security situation of the country.”

Meanwhile, members of the Concerned Citizens Group (CCG), which was led by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha during a recent visit to the Valley, termed the move “excellent”, but rued the fact that the government continued to see the problem as a “security issue”.

CCG member and Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak (retd) told The Tribune: “It’s good to see that now the Centre is doing something instead of nothing. It is also recognition of the fact that the hawkish approach will not resolve the problem.

“But the big question is that the government lacks political imagination as it has chosen an IB man, which is not a good reflection on its part.”