Protesters shout slogans against Vohra in Jammu on Wednesday. (AP)

New Delhi, Aug. 6: The Centre, armed with support from the Left, UPA and most NDA parties, today signalled it was ready for immediate talks with Amarnath agitators if they suspended protests.

Government sources said the exercise might begin over the weekend. Governor N.N. Vohra and his aides would start the process before the Centre stepped in at the “highest level”, which could mean the Prime Minister might invite the agitators over.

The BJP, which insisted the land should be restored to the temple shrine board and Vohra recalled, was isolated as leader after leader appealed to its “good sense” not to allow things to get out of hand because the nation might have to pay a huge price.

“The country should not be punished because any problem in J&K has national and international ramifications,” said an NDA leader to the BJP’s Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley at the all-party meeting today.

Realising this was not the time for political grandstanding or pushing the BJP into a corner, the government adopted a tone of unanimity in a resolution to stress the Opposition and the UPA were one in dealing with the crisis.

The language was tweaked to convey to the agitators that the government would not insist on any overt conditions before talking to them.

“The all-party meeting was of the unanimous view that an environment must be created where the agitation could be suspended and the issues resolved through the process of dialogue,” it said.

The next line said the meeting “suggested” immediate talks could “facilitate the suspension of the agitation and its peaceful resolution”.

The resolution stated that it was “imperative that communalisation of the situation should be prevented at all costs as this would adversely impact on the secular fabric of the nation”.

Congress sources said the message was meant as much for the BJP as erstwhile ally PDP, which withdrew from the Jammu and Kashmir coalition after the cabinet allotted land to the Amarnath shrine board to set up temporary shelters for pilgrims.

Former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who attended the meeting, said the decision was not tantamount to handing the land permanently to the temple board as the PDP had construed it. Nor did it mean the pilgrims would be denied their right to temporary shelters.

Sources said Azad’s briefing did not cut ice with the BJP leaders. Rajnath spoke of how the “sentiments” of the Jammu region were deeply hurt. Another leader alleged that the Centre went “out of its way” to “appease” the Valley people, but was unconcerned about the “psyche” of the Jammu people.

After Rajnath apparently said the agitation would not be called off before a dialogue was started, leaders of the NDA’s “secular” constituents suggested sending an all-party delegation to the state.

The government said if the BJP was game, it did not have a problem.