RSS slams PDP for insisting on talks with Pak

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 5

As the BJP leadership has maintained a guarded silence over the preconditions set by the PDP to restitch the alliance, the RSS, the ideological head of the Sangh Parivar, today made a veiled attack on the party for demanding a dialogue with Pakistan.

“Instead of pleading the case of Pakistan, the PDP leadership should behave like an Indian party,” said RSS stalwart Indresh Kumar, who reached Jammu this afternoon. “The attitude of the PDP leadership is creating suspicion among countrymen so the onus is on the party (PDP) to remove this misconception,” he added.

Reacting to preconditions imposed by the PDP to restitch the alliance, Indresh Kumar said: “It is the trust and not the conditions which are the foundations of a strong relation. Instead of setting conditions, there is a need to develop trust and faith.”

Indresh Kumar asserted that the BJP was not in a hurry to form the coalition. “One thing is very much clear that the BJP will not compromise on any condition which is against the wishes and aspirations of the nationalist people of J&K,” he said, adding, “There is no question of compromising on the national interest just for enjoying power in J&K.”

“One should not undermine the sacrifices of the BJP in J&K. Since 1947, the BJP and other affiliated organisations have been working for the integration and development of the state so people of J&K are very much aware of the policies and programmes of the party,” he said.

Earlier, while addressing a function organised by some woman organisations, Indresh Kumar dubbed the Constitution of J&K as anti-women.

Kumar’s statement attached importance as a debate on Article 35-A, which debars non-state subjects from getting citizenship in J&K, has been generated in the state. “J&K is the only state of India which discriminates against its people on the basis of gender,” he argued.

He equated the J&K Constitution with that of Pakistan where women do not have equal rights. “In Pakistan, the witness of two women is equal to the witness of a man. Similarly in J&K, women are treated inferior to men,” he said.