Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Oct 15: Outrig-htly rejecting holding of talks with separatists, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan today said that unless the separatists accept that India is their own country and Kashmir issue resolved under the ambit of Indian Constitution, there is no fun of holding dialogue with them.
The Minister, who was on a day’s visit to Jammu told media persons here this afternoon that terrorism was the root cause of ongoing unrest in the Valley and there was no fun of holding dialogue till terrorism is eliminated completely and normalcy restored in the Valley. “Till the time separatists raise pro-Pakistani slogans and unfurl Pak flags, there is no point of holding talks,” he added.
He said terrorists on gun point force the innocent children to pelt stones on Army otherwise they will eliminate them and this way they use the innocent people and children for their own ends. Till the gun is eliminated normalcy can’t be restored so the Government is working towards the same. The situation should be left for Army and Government to deal with, he added.
“Terrorism is the main cause for the ongoing unrest in Kashmir valley. We are pained to see when innocent youth are killed after being threatened by terrorists to throw stones at the security forces,” he added.
“People who have never thought of leaving Kashmir are now going to other places because they want to live a peaceful life. The day terrorism ends, all the problems in the Valley would end,” he asserted.
In response to a question whether talks should be held with Pakistan as advocated by NC leader, Dr Farooq Abdullah during a meeting of opposition parties yesterday, the Minister said, “such issues should not be made a public debate. The issues of national interest and national security should be left to the Army and the Government to decide.”
India is hard pursuing before the world community that Pakistan be declared a terrorist State. “The BRICS meeting is underway in Goa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy has yielded good results so we should left this issue to be decided by Government’’, he added.
Lashing out at Pakistan, he said the neighbouring country has no standing before India and except the false threats given by its leaders it can’t stand before India.
The Union Minister also hit out at the separatists for giving cold shoulders to the All-Party Delegation, which had gone to meet them last month to discuss the Kashmir unrest.
“Last time Parliamentary delegation visited Valley to hold parleys with separatists but they rejected the same so what is the purpose of holding talks now,” he added.
He said people in Kashmir are not with terrorism, they want to live in peace and do the normal business but they are under the threat of terrorists.
The LJP leader said in a democratic country, everybody has the right to protest, but they (separatists) should not spoil the life and future of school-going kids.
“The children are unable to go to schools, to get education. What will they do in future?,” he said and appealed people not to spoil the future of these children.
Commenting on the opposition’s onslaught against the Modi Government regarding the Army’s PoK strikes, Paswan said, “After the Uri attack, opposition started abusing the Prime Minister and mocked that his 56-inches chest has been reduced to 26-inches. When they blame the leader for bad things, why do they shy of giving credit to him for good things?”
He said in 1965 Indo-Pak war everyone praised the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and in 1971 war opposition highly praised Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister. Even the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee who was in opposition at that time declared Mrs Gandhi as the incarnation of Goddess Durga, he added.
The Union Minister also called for keeping armed forces out of politics.
“People of Pakistan are not our enemy. Our enemy is terrorism and we are fighting it. The decision of when, how and where to fight terrorism should be left on the wisdom of the Army,” Paswan added.
On the Uniform Civil Code, the Union Minister said the national level debate is going on but the Government has not taken any stand and till Prime Minister speaks on the issue how can he comment on it.
Alleging that some people were doing politics on Unna issue, Paswan said that this Government is not working against the down-trodden people and Prime Minister, Modi has ordered construction of national smarak on the birth place of Dr B R Ambedkar. Besides the national smarks will be constructed at Mumbai and London on the name of this great national leader, he added.
The Minister said to keep a check on hoarding and black marketing of pulses across the country, the Union Government will soon start distribution of pulses through post offices.
“In the past, we have seen that the cost of pulses increased manifold due to black marketing and hoarding so the Union Government has decided to sell pulses through post offices whenever the need arises,” Paswan added.
He said post offices were spread in the entire length and breadth of the country and can easily be used for the purpose of selling pulses at Government rates.
“There is a huge network of post offices in the country, every village has a post office and whenever the need arises, we can use them to sell pulses.
The required infrastructure is already available with the Centre and decision in this regard has already been taken,” he said.
The Government has taken various measures against hoarders and black marketers due to which the prices of pulses have come down, he said.
The Government has started the process of linking the Aadhaar cards with ration card and so far 69 per cent of the task has been completed. He said so far two crore fake ration cards have been detected across the country.
“Around 10 crore people were getting ration on these fake ration cards which is a very huge number. Online allocation of food grains has been made for every State to maintain transparency,” he said.
Paswan said all the point of sales for ration would be connected online so that people from one State can easily get ration from other States.
He said his department has been working on various programmes to make the distribution of ration easy for the common people.
The consumer forums are being strengthened so that grievances of the consumers are addressed at the earliest.
“In big malls and in airlines they don’t have any MRP written on the product, we will make sure that consumers do not have to pay more than the cost of the product,” he said.
The Government is contemplating to implement the recommendations of the committee that was formed to check misleading advertisement and endorsements by celebrities.
“Some celebrities make misleading comments about the product which make people think that the product advertised does wonders. We are planning to take action against the celebrities for those misleading advertisements,” he said.
The committee has recommended strict punishment which includes imprisonment for 2-5 years, he said.
The Minster of State for Consumer Affairs Ch Zulfkar said that the State Government has its own Consumer Protection Act but after the new Act will be brought by Centre the State will implement it.
He complimented the Minister for agreeing to provide maize to the consumers of the State at Rs one per kg and said the State Government will launch campaign along with Bureau of Indian Standards to protect the consumer rights in the State.
Earlier, Paswan straight way from airport visited Muthi to participate into 10th day rituals of Advocate Chuni Lal Saraf, who passed away here recently. Advocate Saraf was the father of Sanjay Saraf, president Youth Lok Janshakti. The Union Minister expressed his condolences to bereaved family.
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