Cong slams Modi govt over Kashmir issue, cancellation of talks with Pakistan

New Delhi: Slamming the government over its handling of Kashmir issue and the recent row over cancellation of Indo-Pak foreign secretaries meet, Congress today said the “very complex, historical problem” cannot be solved by giving “half-baked and shortsighted” statements.

“The kind of statements this government is making about Jammu and Kashmir are insensitive in the extreme. They seem to indicate that there is no problem in Jammu and Kashmir except a law and order problem.

“…But it is not true. There is a very complex, long drawn historical problem,” party spokesperson and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid told reporters at the AICC briefing.

To a question about views within the government on abrogation of Article 370, he said, “Some people suffer from perpetual opposition syndrome… There are some instruments that bind us to Jammu and Kashmir.”

Holding that the efforts of the previous governments have been to reach out to the soul of the people of Kashmir, Khurshid said that the “answer does not lie in half-baked, shortsighted statements given to a gathering of shouting and screaming BJP supporters”.

Asked about demands of a Hindu Chief Minister for Jammu and Kashmir, Khurshid said, “Do we say that about any other state? Why only so and so. Let people of Jammu and Kashmir decide for themselves.”

Attacking the Narendra Modi government over cancellation of Foreign Secretary level talks after the Pakistan envoy met separatist leaders from Kashmir despite the government’s objections, Khurshid said that the NDA government was “completely unprepared”.

PTI