Responding to demands for initiating a political process in Kashmir, the Home Minister said the government is ready to have talks with mainstream parties, moderates and others.
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“Stakeholders are the Kashmiri Pandit, stakeholders are the refugees from West Pakistan, stakeholders are the refugees from PoJK (Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir), stakeholder is the Sikh community, stakeholder is Jammu, and stakeholder is Ladakh”, he said.
Alleging Pakistan for fermenting problem in the Valley, he said, “There is no doubt and we have been getting proofs also that Pakistan has been indulging in a conspiracy in Kashmir”.
Azad’s party colleague and former Jammu and Kashmir governor Karan Singh said the government and the house should “introspect why thousands of youths have embarked on a path of destruction” in the valley. “Talks would not be held with Pakistan regarding Kashmir”, he added.
After an intense debate in the Rajya Sabha over the volatile Kashmir situation, the Government and the Opposition on Wednesday came together to find a way forward to take steps to win trust of the people and diffuse the ongoing circle of violence that has claimed 55 lives and left hundreds of people in hospital with pellet gun injuries. The region has been under curfew for 33 days.
An all-party meeting is to be held on Kashmir issue on August 12, the day monsoon session ends and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend it, said Rajnath Singh.
Sharing the pain of the suffering Kashmiris, Parliament today unanimously appealed to people of the valley to restore peace and harmony even as the government expressed readiness to hold talks with moderate groups and others and chose to call an all-party meet on Friday.
“We will not speak to them [Pakistan] on Kashmir, we will speak to them on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”.
“There is a need to understand that it is not enough to just have Kashmir, we have to ensure Kashmiris are ours. We have to chalk out such political measures that the people of Jammu and Kashmir also start loving us”. “The “gau rakshaks”, he added sarcastically. Mir Mohammad Fayaz of PDP said people in Kashmir have asked why Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, was hanged while those on death sentence from other states given clemency. The composite dialogue which IK Gujral had started in 1997; Modi ji should take that also into consideration.
“(The) Prime Minister might say anything but it does not make any difference. “Is there no value of the parliament?”
“Modi tweets on events across the world, but was silent on Kashmir crisis”. When something happens in Africa, the Prime Minister tweets about it.
Earlier in his address leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking in parliament about the month-long unrest in the Kashmir Valley and urged the government to integrate hearts and minds of people of the “integral part of India” to solve problems there. He then spoke further on the issue and urged the government not to distinguish between “Kashmir the people” and “Kashmir the land”. “This shows that the parliament means nothing to the PM and he would not have spoken on the Kashmir issue if the chief minister had not asked him to do so”, he said.
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“Do not only love the beauty of Kashmir. Love those who have been blinded, injured and killed”, he added, in an apparent reference to Modi’s remarks that “every Indian loves Kashmir”. “IOK government is dependent on the Centre and central forces for maintaining law and order in the state”. “Kashmiriyat” and “Insaniyat” are murdered by pellet guns. “Many of us have lost their near and dear ones due to this militancy in Kashmir”, he said. A militant is a militant: “be it from Kashmir or Punjab”, he said. “Aur uska nateeja, parinaam, aneko model pichhle 20 saalo me diye jaa rahe hain Kashmir ko hal karne ke liye (And the result is that several models are being suggested in the last 20 years as a solution to the Kashmir problem)”, he said.
