MALU SHARMA
Sunil Sethi, BJP Chief Spokesperson: We welcome the step taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and are hopeful that the meeting will have fruitful results. The initiative was to provide a political platform to mainstream leaders so that parties can participate in elections. This is a great initiative and the response of political parties too has been good. This is actually a victory for democracy and we are hoping that soon the delimitation will be done and an election held to put in place an elected government. I thank PM Modi and HM Amit Shah for giving a platform to the leaders of Jammu to put forward their concerns and issues. The meeting has been a big success.
G. M Sarrori, Former Minister: Dialogue is the key agenda of the Congress party and we believe this alone is the way forward to address the issues. I feel this initiative should have been taken earlier. Anyway, we welcome the initiative taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The five issues raised by the Congress leaders were discussed in the meeting and the demand of statehood was vociferously made. Jammu and Kashmir is the jewel in the crown of India and bifurcation has hurt the sentiments of the people. I feel assembly should not have been dissolved and the people should have been taken into confidence. They should have talked to leaders. We demand jobs, land security, tourism, economic development, and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. The present government has done nothing and all the development has been registered during the tenure of Gulam Nabi Azad as Chief Minister. Delimitation issue was also initiated in the meeting and we are hopeful that the process will be completed earnestly. We hope that the promises made would be implemented in letter and spirit.
Syed Altaf Bukhari, Apni Party chief: Nobody in the meeting talked about the dialogue with Pakistan. There was no such discussion in the meeting. The discussion in the meeting was different than what was expected. We sought constitutional guarantee regarding protection of lands and government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir. We had already met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8 in which we raised the apprehensions of people in Jammu and Kashmir regarding demographic changes, following which the government issued an order regarding the protection of land and jobs. I thanked PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for taking steps in the right direction. Besides, I demanded constitutional guarantees in this regard in the recent meeting.
Dr S K Bali, former Head of Department Nephrology, GMC: Dialogue is the key to end the problems and it is indeed a welcome step taken by PM Modi. We are hopeful that the delimitation process will get pace and soon it will be completed and then there will be elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, we demand statehood status back and look forward towards the initiation of a political process in Jammu and Kashmir so that the issues and demands of people of Jammu can be addressed. The only regret is that the sentiments and aspirations of people of Jammu were ignored during the meeting. It is unfortunate that no leader put forward the key issues of Jammu in the All Party Meet. The Centre needs to look after this seriously and make serious efforts to assuage the aspirations of Jammuites.