New Delhi, February 21
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today said the Centre’s new interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, former Home Secretary N N Vohra, would start holding talks with the elected representatives and other groups in the state from next month.
The talks should begin in March, Mr Advani said after Mr Vohra called on him at his Parliament House office. He said the interlocutor could hold talks with anyone who laid down arms and shunned the path of violence.
Asked if the talks would also be held with the Hurriyat Conference, Mr Advani said to begin with, the parleys should be held with the elected representatives. ``We don’t have any objections to whoever he wants to talk to,’’ Mr Advani said.
“There are people of the Jammu and Ladakh regions besides the political parties with which the talks should be held,” he said.
Mr Vohra had a 30-minute meeting with Mr Advani during which he is believed to have been briefed about the points of reference for holding talks with political parties and other groups in the state.
After the meeting, Mr Vohra said he would also meet Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K.C. Pant and Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley to get a broad idea about their efforts in bringing peace in the state.
Mr Vohra replaces Mr Pant in the task of carrying out the dialogue which was promised by the Centre before the Assembly elections in the state.
Mr Vohra, who had also served as Defence Secretary and as Principal Secretary to the then Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, had headed a committee that probed the politician-criminal nexus. He was Chairman of the Committee on Internal Security that was created as a follow-up of the report of the Subrahmanyam Committee on the Kargil
conflict.
