PM tells his advisor to join Kashmir, Manipur firefighting exercise

He’s also working on the Manipur problem, trying to get the Apunba Lup, the umbrella organisation spearheading the agitation, into a dialogue with Delhi.

It’s learnt that Narayanan was asked to join the firefight after UPA allies, especially the Left, raised concerns over the government’s handling of the situation in the two states.

Sources said Narayanan is also preparing a concept paper on Kashmir to revive the peace dialogue between the Hurriyat and the Centre and suggest measures to reduce the influence of Pakistan on separatist groups.

He has been studying in detail the Centre’s past initiatives on Kashmir, going back in time to the days of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. He has also studied the paper by Textiles Secretary Wajahat Habibullah at the Institute of Peace in the US on doing away with the alienation of the Kashmiris.

Before the Prime Minister visits Jammu and Kashmir next month, Narayanan and the Home Ministry plan a consolidation of separatist forces minus Syed Ali Shah Geelani: the idea is to get the dialogue with the Centre going.

The Government sees an opportunity because Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Shabir Shah of Democratic Freedom Party and JKLF’s Yasin Malik were said to have had reservations on joining hands with Geelani when Pakistan Foreign Minister Kurshid Kasuri came calling.

Naryanan’s mandate is to review the role of Centre’s Kashmir interlocutor, cut down Pakistani propaganda and persuade the separatists to revive the dialogue with Delhi. Back channel contacts have already begun because the Centre wants to interact with all Valley groups. The test case though will be Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s visit to J&K on October 23.