Only Modi can solve Kashmir, he has decisive mandate: CM

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 28: Stating that the approach adopted by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the only way to resolve the Kashmir dispute, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today claimed that if the dispute was not resolved under Prime Minister Narendra Modi it will never be resolved as he has decisive mandate of the country.
“There is no other option but only the Vajpayee doctrine. We will have to follow it and they (Pakistan) too will have to follow it, if we have to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of this mess and this cycle of violence, this is the only option,” she said while speaking at a function ‘Ujala’, organized by the Power Development Department for free distribution of LED bulbs at the Convention Centre here this evening.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Incharge Power Development Department, was also present.
In an interview with PTI in New Delhi, Mehbooba batted for talks with those, who reject violence. She said she was not averse to involving separatists if they are looking for a peaceful solution.
In her Jammu address, she claimed that it was the only opportunity which the people have to resolve the dispute and if it was not resolved under Modi, it won’t be resolved ever.
“I said this yesterday also that during the Modi period, if our country and Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir people won’t resolve the issue then this issue will never be resolved. You don’t get such a powerful leader everyday who can take decision,” she said.
She said that her Government had hardly completed three months, when the ongoing cycle of violence in Kashmir started after the killing of Burhan Wani.
“What was the fault of our Government that only within three months there was an encounter and such a situation was created and so much of bloodshed and violence started,” the Chief Minister said.
She said that rumours were spread against her Government on one pretext or the other, but made it clear that the State has a special place in the heart of the India and nobody is going to do anything with that special place.
Mehbooba said the parents of the children who were either killed or injured should be asked what type of ‘Azaadi’ (freedom) they were looking after.
“I don’t know what people call Azaadi, if Azaadi has to be achieved in such a way where small children lose their vision, their parents must be asked whether they are ready to give such a sacrifice for such an elusive Azaadi,” she said.
She said that when there is violence all the freedom is lost.
The Chief Minister said today the situation in Kashmir was such that the shopkeepers were not able to open their shops and the employees were not able to attend the office and they were not afraid of the police or security forces, but were afraid of the small kids who were “attacking” them.
“A ten-year-old kid who does not know what politics is, what Kashmir issue is, what forces are playing behind him, is being used to target security force camps and police stations,” she said.
Mehbooba said her party joined hands with BJP so that both the parties can take ahead the Vajpayee doctrine and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the mandate to make it happen.
“We came together to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of this bloodshed and to bring it out of this violence. We had to adopt the Vajpayee doctrine. When Vajpayee went to Pakistan then General Musharraf did not come to meet him and then there was Kargil but later he came to India and said that whatever was necessary we will discuss, and make border irrelevant, but it happened only when Vajpayee showed a big heart,” the Chief Minister said.
She said that Gen Musharraf after doing the “futile exercise” of going to United Nations and other bodies realised that the Vajpayee’s approach was the only way to resolve the issue. He promised that his land would not be allowed to be used for “anti-India” activities.
“As a result, violence and militancy showed a decline in Kashmir,” she said.
While attacking the present Pakistani dispensation of fueling the violence in Kashmir, the Chief Minister said that she was hopeful that after once again realizing the “futility” of approaching United Nations and other platforms it will have to come and hold the hand of friendship with India.
“I am hopeful as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attempted and the time will come when Pakistan after exploring all futile options will have to reply to India’s friendship with friendship,” she said.
While speaking about Insha Malik, the girl who lost her vision due to pellets and is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi, an emotional Mufti said that she even asked the doctors to take her eye if they could restore Insha’s sight.
“Insha wanted to become a doctor, is there anything which would bring back her sight, I say it from my heart … I told the doctors that I have seen a lot of life and if I have to give one of my eyes to bring sight to her I am ready to give it,” she said.
At the same time, she also spoke about a police jawan admitted in the same hospital for whom doctors said he can’t stand throughout his life and asked: “what his fault is’’?
She said that by closing schools and hampering the education of the youth of Kashmir the issue cannot be resolved.
“Do they want that our children should not go to school, it is a political issue, an idea but when you attack camps, police stations, then we are heading to the freedom of Syria and Libya … If we continue to follow that path of violence and give stones to small children then the day is not far away that while looking for Azaadi we end up making it a land of handicapped people,” she said.
Mehbooba said that she was told that small kids slapped an elderly shopkeeper who opened his store.
“Stones are not the solution of anything, I appeal to the people to help restore peace, the whole country is looking towards us,” she said.
She said that the All-Party delegation will come to Jammu and she would want people who want to end the cycle of violence in Kashmir to be in the delegation and not what has happened in the past.
“Send the people who want dialogue and not violence, people who want to end the crisis with dialogue, whom the people of Jammu and Kashmir can trust. In the past, interlocutors came and filed reports but it yielded no output,” she said.
The Chief Minister said all the parties should join hands to bring normalcy and help restore peace in the Valley.
She said she would fulfill her responsibilities by taking forward the agenda of development in Jammu and Kashmir in the remaining term of PDP-BJP coalition Government for next four and half years. She hoped that cycle of violence will end soon and better sense will prevail on those instigating trouble in the Valley.
Mehbooba called upon the people to give “peace a chance’’ saying she wants to take development agenda, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Chief Minister and her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, forward and make J&K “a model of development’’ in the next four and half years of remaining term of the Government.
“We want the State to touch new heights of development but unfortunately, it has been hampered by the unrest,’’ she regretted and called upon the people of the Valley to give peace a chance.
PTI address from New Delhi:-
Whosoever is ready to reject violence and help in restoring peace should be engaged in a dialogue to address the Kashmir problem, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said today while not being averse to involving the separatists if they are looking for a peaceful resolution.
At the same time, she said a “conducive atmosphere” needs to be created for a dialogue to take place and the “bunch of people” provoking youth to “gherao and attack” security camps should stop abetting violence.
Mehbooba, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here yesterday to discuss the future course of action, also emphasised that the format of dialogue should be better than in the past when the central governments had nominated interlocutors and set up working groups.
She told PTI in an interview that “threads” need to be picked up from where these were left by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had made a “very serious effort” by having dialogue both on external front with Pakistan and on internal front with Hurriyat and Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit.
“What I am concerned about and told the Prime Minister is that people have lost faith in dialogue. So first dialogue as an institution has to be restored,” Mehbooba said amid the unrest which has been going on in Kashmir for the last 51 days resulting in the killing of 68 people.
“We need to put people who have very credible backgrounds and can communicate with the other side,” she added while noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh have expressed readiness for talks for “some kind of solution to this problem”.
Emphasising that “whosoever wants a solution to the Kashmir problem should understand that solution is not going to come in days or months”, she said “do we make life so miserable for all that time the solution comes? Do we want our boys to get killed? Do we want them to do something which is going to have retaliation and injuries? That is something for everyone to think.”
Asked who all should be engaged in the dialogue, the Chief Minister said the central government should talk to “whosoever is ready to reject violence and not support violence and helps in restoring peace.”
On being asked whether talking to Hurriyat will help, she said that dialogue should be held with “everybody who wants peaceful resolution and is ready to contribute in containing the situation.”
Suggesting that there should be peace before talks are initiated, she said, “Today there is no alternative to dialogue but for dialogue (to happen), you need to have conducive atmosphere.”
Maintaining that nothing will be achieved through violence, Mehbooba said killings and deaths only “further complicate” the issue rather than help solve it.
In this context, the Chief Minister noted that Kashmir has been witnessing violence for the last 27 years but nothing has been achieved, except for killings which have left children orphaned and women widowed.
In a message to Hurriyat and other separatist groups, she said, “If they want to save young and precious lives, they need to tell them the truth that these killings, deaths are not going to solve the problem but these further complicate the issue. It also hijacks the basic issue and gives it a tinge of violence.
“The whole world is fed up with violence. Nobody is ready to listen to the voice of violence. So whatever can be resolved peacefully, should be resolved peacefully.”
Mehbooba told the Hurriyat leaders that “whatever influence” they have on the young boys who indulge in violence, they should use it to see that some sense prevails.
“They (Hurriyat leaders) should feel about these young boys like we feel about our own children. Because if we let them go and attack camps (of security forces) and make them emotional that this is going to resolve the Kashmir problem, we are not being honest. We are misleading them and putting them in a very dangerous spot,” she underlined.
Referring to Hurriyat’s call to people last week to ‘gherao’ army cantonment in Badami Bagh in Srinagar yesterday, she said, “It is not done. If you are asking those young boys to go near these camps or ambush people, what is going to be the result?”
Asked whether these provocative actions are being deliberately undertaken, the Chief Minister said, “That is something that should not happen because every attack on security forces’ establishment means somebody is injured even if there is maximum restraint” by security personnel.
“They (Hurriyat leaders) should use their influence, whatever they have, to see there are no casualties,” she said.
“Who are these people who want violence? Those interested in resolving the issue fully understand and should understand that violence for the last 27 years has given nothing except so many people having died. It has not resolved anything,” she said.
Mehbooba said the “bunch” of people, who are “motivated” or “influenced” and take to streets in a “very violent manner” “are not causing only injuries to themselves but they are also hijacking and making things very difficult for the rest of the population who are for peaceful resolution (of Kashmir tangle).”
On whether an interlocutor should be appointed for talks, she said, “It is for the Prime Minister and the NDA government to see how to go about in a better manner than has happened in the past. You tried interlocutors, working groups etc but the people with whom dialogue has to happen, they also need to use their influence, whatever they have, to calm the situation.”
She described Kashmir problem as “the biggest challenge for any Prime Minister” since Independence when the state took the decision of acceding to India by rejecting the two-nation theory.
“Then why did things go in the reverse direction? Kashmiri people were the ones who drove out (Pakistani) invaders and stood up against Pakistan whenever there was a chance. But somewhere something happened… There was a lot of distrust,” she said.
“I think every government has tried to restore that confidence, may be sometimes half-heartedly, sometimes not in the right way,” Mehbooba said.
Noting that Vajpayee made a serious effort, she hoped that Modi will carry forward that process.
“The Prime Minister understands his strengths, his authority. After a long, long time, we have a Prime Minister who has come with such a huge mandate and he understands that. With such kind of mandate, he can use it to find some kind of way out to this human problem, this human tragedy.
“I think he is trying his best. He went to Lahore… Here is a Prime Minister who walks into there (Lahore)..But unfortunately, you had Pathankot (terror attack),” she said.
She said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also wanted to find some solution to Kashmir and wished to go to Pakistan but could not go there “for whatever reasons”.
The previous UPA Government as well as the NC-Congress Government in the State “could not pick up the threads where Vajpayee had left and then there was vacuum and disillusionment”, she said.

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