Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech may have injected some hope into the India-Pakistan engagement, but it has miffed the separatist camp and even failed to impress the mainstream People’s Democratic Party.

For moderate Hurriyat, the speech was a letdown after expectations were raised by Home Minister P Chidamabaram’s recent visit to the Valley. Chidambaram had talked of a dialogue with various political shades in Kashmir and a unique solution to a unique problem in the state. This had made the Hurriyat believe that an offer of talks would come during the PM’s visit. Singh, separatists say, has “only dealt in generalities, with no new coherent policy initiative on Kashmir”.

“The PM had nothing specific to offer,” top Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Bhat said. In fact, Bhat was more appreciative of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s call for a simultaneous action on development and political front on Kashmir. “Delhi should understand that now even pro-India leaders speak the Hurriyat language. Money will not solve Kashmir.”

Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, “The PM’s observations only vindicate us. Delhi shirks any substantive initiative

on Kashmir.” .

“Before we talk, New Delhi should at least grant that Kashmir is a problem. If this is not the case, then what talks, and to what end.”

The disappointment has spilled over to the separatists outside the Hurriyat fold, one of whom termed Singh’s speech as an “abstract painting”, which said nothing that mattered to them.

Moderates would rather go with the Chidambaram, who, they think, made some unprecedented statements on Kashmir. “He (Chidambaram) is a serious man. He has undertaken a serious exercise and should hopefully follow it to its logical conclusion,” Bhat said. Earlier, moderate chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is in London attending conferences on Kashmir, revealed that a contact existed between New Delhi and Hurriyat.

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