New Delhi:
The UPA's new push is on Kashmir. Five top ministers, including Home Minister P Chidambaram, are preparing ground for the Prime Ministers visit to Srinagar early next week.
With the focus on infrastructure - and more crucially, to build on the politics of healing - the Home Minister indicated a readiness to talk to separatists.
"We are open for dialogue. We mean exactly what we say. We will talk to all sections of people in J&K. The dialogue process will start and will be carried to its logical conclusion. I am confident that within a short period, we will come up with a solution to the political problem in J&K.
The government will have to tread cautiously and try not to antagonise its ally - the ruling National Conference.
Farooq Abdullah has already thundered out a warning: "I am 73 and I can tell you this with authority that the trouble with Delhi is that it starts dialogue, but it doesn't know what the hell they are dialoguing about"
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah too has made it clear that while the economic sops are welcome, the Centre needs to politically engage the people of the state.
For separatists, this may now be an opportunity they can't miss. The rejection of their boycott call in the Lok Sabha elections and the internal turmoil in Pakistan leave them with limited options.
With the focus on infrastructure - and more crucially, to build on the politics of healing - the Home Minister indicated a readiness to talk to separatists.
"We are open for dialogue. We mean exactly what we say. We will talk to all sections of people in J&K. The dialogue process will start and will be carried to its logical conclusion. I am confident that within a short period, we will come up with a solution to the political problem in J&K.
The government will have to tread cautiously and try not to antagonise its ally - the ruling National Conference.
Farooq Abdullah has already thundered out a warning: "I am 73 and I can tell you this with authority that the trouble with Delhi is that it starts dialogue, but it doesn't know what the hell they are dialoguing about"
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah too has made it clear that while the economic sops are welcome, the Centre needs to politically engage the people of the state.
For separatists, this may now be an opportunity they can't miss. The rejection of their boycott call in the Lok Sabha elections and the internal turmoil in Pakistan leave them with limited options.
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