The Government on Saturday hit back at senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for his comments on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), while Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju criticised Chidambaram saying that it was wrong on his part to make such statements when out of power.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retd) VK Singh — who arrived in Srinigar to reiterate BJP’s stance on crucial political issues including stability of Article 370, Hindu Chief Minister for Jammu & Kashmir and efficacy of AFSPA, defended the Act saying, “AFSPA does not give unlimited powers...We have seen what has happened in Machil (fake encounter case where five Army personnel, including two officers, were given a life imprisonment by the Army itself). No civilian court would have given a decision in such a short time.”
Singh also took a jibe at Chidambaram’s comment saying the latter did not even know in what context he was making such a remark.
Chidambaram has called AFSPA an “obnoxious law”, and said it has no place in a modern, civilised country. The remarks came after the court gave life sentence to five Army personnel in the Machil fake encounter case in Jammu & Kashmir.
Backing Chidambaram, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, “We are trying to ensure that AFSPA is withdrawn. The National Conference Government has done the most to see that AFSPA is repealed.”
On BJP’s stance on Artcile 370 that guarantees special status to J&K in the Indian Union, Singh said that the BJP has neither this Article on the shelf nor taken it out of the shelf. “I don’t know anything which was put on shelf to bring it down”, he said.
On reports that if the BJP comes to power it might project a Hindu Chief Minister in the state for the first time, Singh said, “Whoever is making this noise is insecure. Whichever party comes to power, let it decide who will be the chief minister”, he said.
Singh claimed that BJP will do extremely well because none of the parties, mainstream or otherwise in Jammu & Kashmir has brought in development for people. “I can keep narrating incidents to you where the governments have floundered out here,” he said adding that none of these parties have benefited the people so far and so I think a time has come for the people to choose a party which will stand by them in the developmental needs of the state,” he said.
The former army chief reiterated that dialogue with Pakistan would not resume until Pakistan continues violation of ceasefire along the line of Control (loC) and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir.“Dialogue process has been stopped because if you (Pakistan) are firing at me, you are stopping my ability to talk to you”, Singh said.