Fai sponsorship splits J&K panel,Ansari slams Padgaonkar

Ansari said that while he could not speak for Padgaonkar,if he had been in the same position,he would have “quit immediately”. Ansari said in Kashmir’s discourse,there was a general air of suspicion. Referring to Padgaonkar’s claim that he “had no idea” about Fai’s antecedents,Ansari wondered: “How can you attend a conference without knowing the credibility of the individuals and the institutions?”

Padgaonkar had told The Indian Express yesterday that had he known who Fai “actually was,” he would not have attended the seminar.

However,the third interlocutor,Radha Kumar,said she believed Padgaonkar “has nothing to apologise about”,but felt that the focus should be on areas and organisations that Fai managed to cultivate like the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy,who attended one of Fai’s conferences,said: “I said what I wanted to say,which is that Kashmir is a part of India and we are not going to part with it but we need not go to war about it” he said.

Bharat Bhushan,Editor,Mail Today,who attended a Fai-organised conference in 2008,said: “There was no pressure to toe any particular line.”