Notwithstanding the BJP's inquiries on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's revelations on Kashmir resolution, a top separatist leader on Sunday said that the BJP-led NDA performed better than the Congress-led UPA Government in New Delhi towards the political intervention in Kashmir.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads the moderate faction of separatist Hurriyat Conference, cited former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Kashmir initiatives and said that Vajpayee considered Kashmir as a human problem and declared to resolve it within the ambit of humanity.
"It is a fact that the BJP has been better regarding Kashmir as compared to the Congress," Mirwaiz told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar to commemorate the passage of resolutions on Kashmir in the United Nations in 1948.
Mirwaiz has remarkable memories about the Vajpayee tenure, which initiated formal talks with his group in 2003. Then Deputy PM lK Advani conducted several rounds of talks with the separatists despite opposition from hardliners like Syed Ali Geelani and militant groups. The UPA Government initially continued the talks but truncated them midway after the downfall of military ruler Parvez Musharraf.
Commenting on PM Manmohan Singh's recent remarks that India and Pakistan at one point were close to resolve Kashmir issue, Mirwaiz said that the strong political will was needed to resolve the long-pending problem."The Kashmir's leadership will support any dialogue process aimed at the Kashmir resolution in accordance to the aspirations of the people of Kashmir," he said.
Miwaiz said that people living in all five regions of J&K - Kashmir Valley, Jammu, ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir (PoK) were the stakeholders of Kashmir issue.