The newly-appointed three-member panel of interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday said its agenda was for a comprehensive and political settlement of the Kashmir “dispute”.

“The tight focus will be for seeking a political outcome so that we put this dispute well and truly behind us,” said eminent journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, who along with noted academician Radha Kumar and former CIC member M M Ansari, met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday.

Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Padgaonkar said the Home Minister gave an extensive idea of the mandate for the group.

“The mandate, to put very simply, is that our group will hold the largest possible consultations with all sections of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir and the focus of this dialogue is to seek as large area of agreement as you can to get to arrive at a comprehensive, political settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

He said the panel’s approach and focus will be political one and “we will, therefore, be engaging with opinion leaders, political leaders, civil society groups and others in order to carry forward this dialogue.

“We are obviously aware of the history of many initiatives that have been taken but now we have been given a wide mandate. No red lines have been drawn. We have not been told to do this or do that.”

“It is, therefore, with a complete open mind that we will be going to Jammu and Kashmir as often as we can”, he said.

“Secondly, our mandate is for one year. The (Home) Minister gave us the assurance that as and when we will be coming, we will give government suggestions and recommendations that will emerge from the dialogue,” Padgaonkar said and added Chidambaram assured the panel to attend to these suggestions and recommendations personally and ensure their implementation.

The team of interlocutors was announced on October 13 by the Union Home Ministry.

“We very much hope to go to Srinagar in next four or five days but before that we will have consultations. We hope to very soon call on the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh), UPA chairperson (Sonia Gandhi) and the leader of the opposition (Sushma Swaraj).

“We will be talking also to the political leaders who were part of the all-party delegation to J and K and get a sense of how they assessed the situation and armed with these wide consultations from the basis of what we learn, we shall then proceed to Srinagar,” Padgaonkar said.

Padgaonkar said the panel will be officially approaching all shades of opinion and telling them that “we wish to speak to them and we will tell them very clearly what the approach is, what the focus is?

“And since we intend going to Jammu and Kashmir every month and spending time there, they should know it’s not an event, it’s a process and because it’s a process we can then carry forward the dialogue from month to month so that there is clarity on all sides,” Padgaonkar, who will be chairing all the meetings, said.

When pointed out that the separatists had debunked the panel because of the absence of a political leader, he said “I think they are perfectly free to express their point of view.”

“But what I have just told you, namely the brief we have been given by the Home Minister, is to engage in a dialogue with a view to arriving at the largest possible consensus on a comprehensive political settlement of the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir.”

He said the discussions will be held with everyone including those behind bars.

“It will include everyone. It will certainly include people who are in jail. It will include students who may have pelted stones, may not have pelted stones but we will reach out to the students at the University and elsewhere.”

“We will reach out to all sections, leaders of opinion and that naturally includes the Hurriyat leadership as well as Syed Ali Shah Geelani and whoever else. Absolutely nothing has been told to us that don’t meet this one or meet this one. This is incomprehensible and that is what we plan to do,” he said.

He said the panel was not going with any pre-determined mind or strategy.

“Strategy will be evolved as the dialogue proceeds. We are not imposing conditions, we are not reiterating cliches. We are here for a political settlement,” said.

Padgaonkar said there was no discussion about the fourth interlocutor during their meeting with Chidambaram.