Keep dialogue process with separatists open: Manmohan led panel to New Delhi

A high-level “policy planning group” of the Congress led by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which arrived here on a two-day visit on Saturday, asked Central and J&K governments to keep the dialogue process with separatists open.

"The Central government, as well as the State government, know who the stakeholders are and they should talk to them (separatists) and try to resolve the issue," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after the group's arrival in Srinagar.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by raising the emotions of people "but has remained silent since taking over the reins of the country."

"Modi’s election victory was 90% because of Kashmir. In our rule, one soldier was beheaded by Pakistani troops, but such instances have happened a number of times now in their rule and still, the Prime Minister is silent. He had raised the emotions of the people across the country in the Lok Sabha elections by raking up Kashmir and militants versus the rest of the country but since he took over, he has taken Kashmir to the end of destruction," he said.

The group led by Singh, besides Azad, include former Union home minister P Chidambaram, party general secretary Ambika Soni and Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh. Immediately after their arrival in Srinagar, the group held an executive committee meeting of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee at Hari Niwas here.

Azad, also a former chief minister of J&K, said when Congress was in power in alliance with the National Conference, they had a multi-pronged strategy to improve the political and economic situation in the militancy-hit state.

"The (cross-LoC) trade routes were opened between Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and J&K. Not only trade, but lots of people were coming. With this, people were expecting that there would be more improvement in the situation. So whether it was tourism, employment, trade or militancy; in my tenure (as CM) in 2007, we had declared south Kashmir militancy free and today where is south Kashmir? It is boiling. Today no one is coming to Kashmir, the tourists are not coming," he rued.

On his party's stand on Article 35A of the constitution, which grants special status to the state, the senior Congress leader evaded a direct answer. "This committee of ours was formed much before the issue of 35A erupted. Keeping in view the overall situation of Jammu and Kashmir, deteriorated situation which during BJP tenure turned from bad to worse and the importance of the Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh, the Congress party has made this group under the chairmanship of the ex-prime minister," he said.

"From the last three-four months, our meetings took place in Delhi and we discussed how the situation turned bad during BJP’s tenure and how the situation had improved during our time and in this midst, the issue of 35-A issue popped up," Azad added.

The Manmohan led group has already visited Jammu and held discussions with dozens of delegations from different parts of the region and is slated to visit Ladakh region in the coming weeks.