In Poonch, arch rivals PDP-NC pitch for Indo-Pak peace
Farooq Abdullah asks India to ‘stop treating us as slaves’
Urges converting LoC into ‘Line of Peace and Goodwill’
Srinagar, Apr 07: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday questioned the viability of independent Kashmir owing to the region being landlocked and surrounded by three nuclear powers, while urging India to stop treating people of Kashmir as slaves.
“Independence is no option. On one side we have nuclear powers China and Pakistan and on other India. And all have atom bombs. We have nothing except the name of Allah. We have no atom bombs, no army and no jets. How are we going to survive?” Abdullah told a gathering at Mandi in Poonch district.
However, the three-time Chief Minister said that Kashmiris were not slaves to India and that the country must respect the honour and dignity of people of Kashmir.
“Unless and until you (India) don’t give back the respect to us, the situation in Kashmir won’t change. They (India) can’t buy us with money even if they build golden roads. They must win hearts and minds of people,” he said.
Reiterating that gun was not a solution to Kashmir issue, Abdullah said that the problem can be resolved only by winning the hearts of people and ending their sufferings.
He said that Kashmiris were not joining Pakistan. “Our nation is not going to Pakistan. Their condition is such that they are not able to handle themselves,” he told the gathering.
Reiterating the need for Indo-Pak dialogue, he said the Line of Control (LoC) should be converted into “Line of Peace and Goodwill” to enable unhindered people to people exchange and trade between divided parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Sooner the two nations appreciate the ground realities better it would be for bringing thaw in the relations and ending hostilities of all sorts,” Abdullah said while reiterating that the wars in the past seven decades have not changed the reality of Line of Control.
He said the border hostilities were detrimental for both India and Pakistan and any full-fledged conflict will lead to devastation and destruction in the region.
Elaborating on the reality of LoC, Abdullah said, areas like Hajipeer and Chamb, captured in 1965 war had to be returned back as per mutual understanding.
He said his assertion over the Line of Control may be criticized and contested but reality cannot be changed. “Conversion of LoC into Line of Peace will benefit peoples living along the borders on both sides, who have been braving the brunt of hostilities,” he said while referring to the unimaginable sufferings caused to border dwellers due to dislocation from their homes and hearths in the wake of shelling and cross-LoC firing, stating that unfortunately this has become a routine since the past few years.
Referring to obtaining situation across the state, the NC chief urged the Centre to resolve the issues which are essentially political in nature and try to win over the alienated hearts and minds by shunning the policy of creating divisions.
He said the claims that demonetization had put an end to stone-pelting in the Valley have fallen flat as the youth were now taking to guns. The situation therefore cannot be allowed to drift any more, he said and called for earnest initiatives to reach out to the people even as he cautioned the Centre against taking the people of Jammu and Kashmir for granted and ignoring their legitimate aspirations.
Farooq Abdullah said the country is passing through a difficult phase as attempts are being made to divide the society in the name of religion and caste and by encouraging sectarian divides. He referred to the violence over dilution of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and said machinations are being engineered to end reservation. He said the present dispensation at the Centre is working against the interests of farmers, weaker sections, and minorities and expressed concern over growing suicides of peasants.
He said despite seven decades of independence, the farmers are continuously been exploited across the country. On the contrary, he said Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah brought a “revolutionary” Land Reforms Act which made tillers masters of their holdings overnight.
NC president also blamed the PDP-BJP dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir for failing on deliverance front, saying developmental inertia has taken toll on various utility services.
He said lack of accountability and misgovernance have added to the miseries of the people, who are feeling let down on every front. He also referred to release of solar lights during his tenure as Union Energy Minister and regretted these are yet to reach the beneficiaries because of political considerations.
He said the present dispensation will have to account for its non-performance and failures and exhorted the people to guard against attempts of dividing them on the basis of religion and maintain time-tested unity to foil all these machinations.
Addressing the gathering, NC general secretary Ali Mohammed Sagar also assailed the PDP for hoodwinking people by emotive slogans and ending up in causing enormous miseries to them in the earlier tenure as also during the present spell.
Sagar described PDP as an “opportunistic political outfit that is pursuing anti-people agenda in the company of the BJP” and said: “The day is not far when it will have to pay for its opportunism”.
He cautioned the “insensitive dispensation” against divisive politics and said dividing society into bits and pieces is not in the interests of the state.
Provincial president Devender Singh Rana, also expressed concern over politics of hate and intolerance being pursued by the PDP-BJP dispensation and reiterated the pledge that NC will foil all these designs by maintaining unity.
Serious political moves a must for development: Madni
Says PM’s Independence Day assurances fading in din of violence
Poonch , Apr 07: Expressing concern over the continuing disturbances on borders and incidents of violence in Kashmir Valley, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice-president Mohammad Sartaj Madni today said that situation needed to be diffused in the interest of people, peace and reconciliation in the region.
Addressing a public gathering in Poonch, Madni said that ever-since partition, people of Jammu & Kashmir have borne the worst owing to confrontation, wars and militancy.
He said, decades have passed with people believing that political dispensation will come round for settlement of contentious issues.
“But in vain. Gore and guns have been allowed to perpetuate. The result is for everyone to see. The paradise is in turmoil. Humanity is under siege and human beings are in trauma with every generation passing on to another bitter memories of death and destruction,” Madni said.
Madni said it is painful to note that each government on both sides of the border made promises of reach-out through dialogue at various levels. “Each government unleashed moves for understanding after every spell of animosity and fight. But every time the moves taken and initiatives unfolded were squandered for no reason.”
Madni recalled how after full blown militancy and losses in Kargil war, India and Pakistan decided to settle for peace, to move forward towards reconciliation.
“Vajpayee and Musharaf governments broke the ice, even agreeing to soft borders and sharing of economic and cultural activity. It was then that people in the region in general and people of Jammu & Kashmir in particular gave their best to broker peace and settle for mutual cooperation, to resolve mutual disputes. Unfortunately, the peace moves did not sustain and confidence building vanished in the din of intransigence from either side,” he said.
PDP vice-president said that people of Jammu & Kashmir need to be heard, both by New Delhi and Islamabad. He said this can happen only if both governments agree to taking serious political moves in the direction of dispute resolution and bring an end to border clashes, besides showing mutual desire to end violence at all levels.
Madni lamented that Prime Minister Narindra Modi’s assurances from ramparts of Red Fort on Independence Day is losing touch as people of the state are yet to witness a concerted and sustainable initiative on political level which could engage stakeholders in serious peace-building.
He said whatever economic activity undertaken for state’s upliftment is getting wasted as the younger generation is not involved and poor and backward on borders are faced with everyday trauma and displacement.
He was accompanied by ministers Abdul Haq Khan and Choudhry Zulufkar who also spoke on the occasion.
