NEW DELHI, July 16:
Rejecting the Interlocutor’s report on Jammu and Kashmir, BJP today said it is against the Parliament’s resolution which declared that the whole State, including Pak-occupied Kashmir, is an integral part of India.
Addressing a dharna here, organised by Jammu Kashmir People’s Forum, BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, “The language of this report is the language of the separatists. It speaks about human rights violation of terrorists but it has failed to include the voices of those who have been the real suffer like those who have migrated from Pakistan.”
Swaraj said the use of word ‘Pakistan-administered Kashmir’ instead of ‘Pak-occupied Kashmir’ was used by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Instead of speaking about integration, she said, the terms like ‘autonomy’, ‘self-rule’ and ‘independence’ has been used in the report which “takes us back in time”.
She attacked the report saying that its recommendations and suggestions were “anti-constitutional” and that it was “merely singing to the tune of the separatists”.
After the dharna, a copy of the report was burnt by the senior BJP leaders, including Vijay Goel, Jagdish Muskhi and others.
Taking strong objection to the suggestion of formation of Constitution committee, including members from PoK, to review the laws that have been implemented after 1947, Swaraj said it is an attempt to wipe off the efforts of leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
Swaraj also criticised the interlocutors for suggesting changing the word about Article 370 of Constitution from ‘temporary’ to ‘Special’ and said suggestion to include it with Article 371, “is an attempt to create a divide as due to Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir could not gel into India.”
Addressing the dharna, RSS leader Ram Madhav said the report is against the spirit of non-negotiable integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India in 1947.
“Mirpur, Muzaffrabad and Gilgit is ours. This report has included only sentiments of leaders of Kashmir valley. Any report should have the sentiments in it, but it should not be against the Constitution,” Madhav said.
He alleged the Interlocutors report is an attempt to include the voices of those who do not have respect for the Constitution.
They have failed to put versions of the refugees, the Kashmiri Pandits, who have been forcefully evicted from their land, he said.
Ramesh Raina, General Secretary of All India Kashmir Samaj, said Kashmiri Pandits are indigenous to the State. “But the report does not say how the sufferings and victimisation of Pandits can be stopped,” he said.
He said, “Central to the problem of Jammu and Kashmir is the issue of Kashmiri Pandits, their non-recognition and their non-assimilation into the mainstream.”
Raina also said that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had in its report said that atrocities against Kashmiri Pandits were akin to genocide.
Terming the Interlocutors’ report as one that divides the country, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) member Surendra Jain said that a whopping Rs 96.5 crore was wasted by the three-member team during their visit to 22 villages.
Objecting to the use of word ‘stakeholders’ in the report, Jain said that the word itself is laced with mischief.
He said the report states if stakeholders are ready, the problem of Kashmir can be solved by involving Pakistani authorities. The VHP member questioned whether this was not an open invitation to Pakistan to intervene in India’s affairs.
The three-member Interlocutors’ team consisting of Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari was appointed by the Union Government on October 13, 2010. The panel submitted its final report to the Home Ministry earlier this year which made it public, on its website, on May 24. (PTI)
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