Shutting doors on dialogue not in state’s interest: CM : The Tribune India

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Shutting doors on dialogue not in state’s interest: CM

SRINAGAR:Maintaining that shutting doors on emissaries of dialogue “is not going to help anyway”, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the separatist leadership was not facilitating the solution of the problem but only holding up the resolution process by spurning parleys.

Shutting doors on dialogue not in state’s interest: CM

Mehbooba Mufti and Nirmal Singh during the launch of UJALA scheme in Srinagar on Tuesday. PTI



Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 6

Maintaining that shutting doors on emissaries of dialogue “is not going to help anyway”, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the separatist leadership was not facilitating the solution of the problem but only holding up the resolution process by spurning parleys.

“We have lost several opportunities in the past to resolve the issue through engagement and dialogue and today again if we miss the chance, the coming generations are never going to forgive us for our intransigence,” the Chief Minister said while addressing a function organised here in connection with the formal launch of UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) scheme in Kashmir.

She made these comments in reference to the refusal of the separatist leaders to hold a dialogue with members of the all-party delegation that visited the state on September 4 and 5.

Stating that her party had been consistently advocating dialogue both with Pakistan and all sections of society within J&K, including the separatists, for a permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said whether it was the party’s Common Minimum Programme with the Congress in 2002 or its ‘Agenda of Alliance’ with the BJP, the PDP had repeatedly reiterated its agenda of 

peaceful resolution of the issue through engagement and reconciliation.

The Chief Minister pointed out that when VP Singh was Prime Minister in 1990, the separatist leadership in Kashmir was approached through emissaries to engage with New Delhi for the settlement of the issue. “However, they refused to come to the negotiating table and lost the first opportunity to resolve the issue… again another opportunity was lost in 2003 when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the peace and reconciliation process on both external and internal fronts. Again, the Hurriyat leadership was invited for talks to resolve the issue. However, because of the internal discord within the separatist leadership at that time, another opportunity to resolve the issue was lost,” she added.

She regretted that after Vajpayee left office in 2004, there was no substantive movement forward on the peace and reconciliation initiatives taken by India and Pakistan.

Asserting that a serious effort was made by reaching out to every section of society in J&K, including the separatist leadership, through the all-party delegation to set the resolution process into motion through dialogue, she said: “Unfortunately, the separatists seem to have again missed the opportunity by refusing to engage. If we refuse to talk to anybody, how will the resolution evolve?”

She urged the separatist leadership to engage in negotiations to make peace a reality in the state and bring an end to the miseries of the people.

Mehbooba said instead of pushing our youth on to the streets, “we should ask them to join their schools and ourselves come to the forefront for resolution of the issues through political and democratic means”.

“Our children are getting killed or maimed, our social fabric is slipping into disorder, economy is in a shambles, educational sector has suffered immensely, tourism inflow is zero, shopkeepers are not able to do business, industrial units are shut, development process has come to a halt and people are feeling suffocated. We shall have to ponder over how long we are going to allow this self-destruction to continue?” she added.

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