After achieving next to nothing during its two-day visit to the violence-torn Kashmir Valley, the all-party delegation on Wednesday appealed to the people to shun violence and pitched for dialogue with all stakeholders. The meeting, chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who led the delegation to Jammu & Kashmir made it clear that there would be no compromise on national sovereignty.
Interestingly, the appeal for talks with all stakeholders came a day after reports that the Government was trying to clips the wings of the separatists by withdrawing several facilities they enjoy.
Coming out with a unanimous resolution, the political parties appealed to the people of the State to shun the path of violence and resolve all issues through dialogues. “The members of the delegation are of the opinion that there is no place for violence in a civilised society. Also, there can be no compromise on the issue of national sovereignty,” the resolution, read out by Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh, said.
At the three-hour-long meeting of the delegation, which visited the State on September 4-5, several leaders demanded resumption of India-Pakistan dialogue, confidence building measures and a “dual track” approach for bringing peace in the restive Valley. While the resolution requested the Central and State Governments to take steps for holding dialogue with all stakeholders, the left parties batted for resumption of India-Pakistan dialogue and announcement of confidence building measures like withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from civilian areas.
Without making any reference to separatists, including Hurriyat Conference, the delegation’s statement asked the Central and State Governments “to take steps for a dialogue with all stakeholders”. Asked whether separatists too would come under the purview of “stakeholders”, Jitendra Singh said the Home Minister is open for dialogue with “all stakeholders”. He did not elaborate.
To a similar question, Congress leader in the lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the separatist amalgamate is part of “all stakeholders”.
Yechury said there was no discussion on the performance of the Mehbooba Mufti-led Jammu & Kashmir Government, but the leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi said personally he felt that the PDP-BJP Government has failed to handle the current situation, which continued for too long, leading to “the present mess”.
“This is not the time to blame. This is the time to work unitedly for bringing peace in Kashmir,” Yechury said. Owaisi said in the meeting that a non-BJP and non-Congress fact-finding team of political parties should visit Jammu & Kashmir to meet a cross section of people to ascertain the loss of lives due to violence. While demanding release of those “illegally jailed” in the Kashmir Valley, the AIMIM leader said the Union Home Minister should talk to the editors of four leading newspapers of Kashmir.
Yechury said the Government should follow up its Kashmir outreach initiative by taking concrete steps like former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, who had declared a unilateral ceasefire and held talks with militant group Hizbul Mujahideen.
Kharge said even though the Government had announced that pellet guns would be replaced by chilli-based non-lethal ammunition PAVA, one man died on Tuesday due to the injuries by pellets.
Expressing serious concern over the prevailing situation in the State, the statement said the members of the delegation were of the view that there is no place for violence in a civilised society. “There can be no compromises on the issues of national sovereignty,” it added.
The meeting asked both the Governments to take steps to ensure that education institutions, Government offices and commercial establishment start functioning normally at the earliest.
They requested the Government to take effective steps to ensure security of all citizens and provide medical treatment to citizens and security personnel injured in the agitation.
Yechury and Owaisi said the Home Minister denied that there was a plan to curtail the security provided to separatist leaders.