STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to mainstream leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Sunday that there has been “no follow-up results” on the ground.
Adbullah said this in reference to the prime minister’s remarks at the June 24 meeting in New Delhi that he wanted to win the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and remove “Dilli ki doori” (the distance from Delhi) and “dil ki doori” (distance between hearts).
Calls for result-oriented Indo-Pak dialogue
Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah Sunday called for a sustained and result-oriented Indo-Pak dialogue process, saying the two countries should realise they cannot win a war against each other.
Addressing party functionaries at two separate meetings at Laamad and Devsar in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, the Srinagar Lok Sabha MP asked both the countries to be consistent, coherent and serious in their nascent engagement.
He asked the two countries to ensure that the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh live a life free from “unending miseries”.
Stressing there is no substitute to dialogue, the NC president said the recent moves and the messages indicating a thaw in the relations between the neighbouring countries have put brakes on the escalating tensions. “For the entire chest-thumping, both the countries cannot win a war against each other. The sooner both the neighboring countries realise the ground reality the better.
“The more serious, coherent and consistent both the nations are in settling all outstanding areas of disagreements, the better it will be for early return of lasting peace and stability to Jammu and Kashmir and the entire region,” he said.
Emphasising the need for a result-oriented dialogue between the two countries, Abdullah said it will benefit the people of Jammu and Kashmir the most.
“Both the nations, I have maintained all along, have to live side by side. It is up to them, if they want to live as enemies or supportive friends and partners in development. Both countries can achieve much by joining hands in progress,” he said.
The former chief minister said if the ties between the two nations are to improve then they have to come out of their “shells” and narrow down their differences and source of conflict to get together on the table to work towards an environment that recognises the concept of J-K’s historical individuality, uniqueness of its sociopolitical complexes and the restoration of its political dignity and historical selfhood.
Lending his party’s support to the peace and camaraderie between the two neighbours, he said the NC has all along been a strong votary of Indo-Pak dialogue.
“There is no substitute to dialogue. But the dialogue should result in J-K centric CBMs (confidence-building measures) including the resumption of cross-LoC trade through a proper banking mechanism and doing away with the present barter system.
“Such J-K centric CBMs will indeed help the two neighbouring countries solve their disagreements amicably and in an objective manner for the greater good of the people of JK, Ladakh and the entire region,” he said.
He also asked the party workers to draw lessons from the worrying disadvantages of disunity and impressed upon them to work towards strengthening democracy and the party.
“The last person out there in Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh is looking up to us with sheer optimism that we will salvage the entire region from murderous manifestations of communalism, and regionalism and to catapult the people from the prevailing economic distress, and instability,” he said.
“That was a welcome statement but there is no effort on the ground to win the hearts of the people. People continue to be locked up and dissent is not tolerated. We want to see the change on the ground, a visible effort to win back the people who went through the trauma of their state being dismembered, its special status removed in one sudden blow,” the three-time former chief minister told PTI here.
“…we are yet to see any follow-up results even after a month,” he said.
“Trust is something that has been missing from both sides (Delhi and Srinagar). Successive prime ministers — Jawaharlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee — made promises but the trust deficit has persisted,” he added.
The 83-year-old veteran politician said that he and his party had attended the Delhi meeting because it was an invitation from the prime minister although he had no expectations from it. Yet, he had hoped for steps to win the hearts and minds of people but nothing had happened.
Abdullah insisted that restoration of “full, undiluted” statehood to Jammu and Kashmir should precede the elections to its Assembly. All major parties have demanded that and the Centre should prove its bona fide by agreeing to that.
Asked if his party would take part in the elections if the statehood was not granted before that, the NC president said, “We will decide at that time when the bugle is blown. We will then sit down and decide what we should do.”
In reply to a question about the fate of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomerate of six mainstream political parties including the NC and its arch rival PDP, Abdullah said the alliance stands and “we are together…we all are there. We haven’t left.”
He said the alliance was cobbled up together in a hurry when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated on August 5, 2019. “We all are like-minded people who joined together to work for restoration, knowing fully well that under this government it will not be restored.”
“But we will continue to fight democratically and legally. People after us will also stand and try and work for the restoration of this,” he said.
Abdullah also pointed out that earlier this month the Delimitation Commission came to Jammu and Kashmir and no members of Parliament, who are its associate members, were invited to sit and watch the proceedings.
Abdullah, who currently represents Srinagar in Parliament, urged the opposition national political parties to “forget” their plans and standings and get together to put the pillar of democracy far more strongly because the “time is running out”.
“The tragedy with India is that the opposition is divided and unless they unite for restoration of democracy and forget their own party plans and party standings, we will never be able to get our democratic structure back.
“And I think efforts are being made, I see they are trying to get together and I hope it does happen soon because time is running out,” he said.
The National Conference was part of a gathering at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on June 22, two days before Prime Minister Modi chaired the meeting with leaders from Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting at Pawar’s residence was called “non-political” but an interaction of like-minded people by CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu who was among the participants.
To a question whether he would be playing a role in binding the opposition parties across the country together, Abdullah said, “…all, whether you are in south, east, west or north, we all have to get together, aim to strengthen democracy, to put the pillar of democracy far more strongly. This will happen because it is the need of the hour.”
Abdullah, who was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act after the Centre abrogated special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into two union territories, said the biggest problem today was the COVID-19 pandemic which shut everything down, bringing the political process “really to a naught”.
Now that things have started to improve and Covid is under control, “you will see political activity on a much bigger scale…. I am sure as the things improve the political parties will meet and draw strategies for the future.”
He referred to the demand made by all leaders at the June 24 meeting for making a level-playing field allowing the political parties to perform their duties and ensuring security.
“Forget about reviewing the security. I can tell you that some more leaders have lost their security after the meeting. Whereas their people, who don’t have any standing with the people, have all the security, all the vehicles and then they say we are just. Where is justice?
“We have shown them even when we were locked up in the local body elections without getting to the people, still people voted for us in huge numbers which has shaken them,” he added.
Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti — all former chief ministers — were part of the 14-member delegation from Jammu and Kashmir to attend the meeting with the prime minister.