| Electoral compulsions confine Mehbooba to Kashmir alone | | Jammu, Ladakh not in former CM's list | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Jan 20: Vote bank politics especially in view of the forthcoming assembly elections have made the Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti short sighted and she has admitted that her focus was only on Kashmir.
"There has been no dialogue, there aren't many channels for it. The Central government is very important as far as the resolution of the Kashmir problem is concerned, whosoever is in power. However, at this point in time, my focus is Kashmir, the people of Kashmir, instead of Delhi," she told an interview to a national daily. In her entire interview, she spoke only about issues concerning Kashmir. She did not mention issues concerning Ladakh and Jammu.
"The situation is quite grave, people are getting killed every day. One of the reasons for aligning with the BJP was to address the situation and come up with some kind of solution to the problem, to stop the death and destruction. Basically, all governments in Delhi so far have tried to fight violence with violence. But, unfortunately, when a boy picks up a stone, and is ready to face the gun, we fail to understand what has led him to do that," she said.
"Mufti saab tried to persuade (Prime Minister) Modiji to look at Kashmir through the prism of humanity, as Vajpayee did… to reach out not only to Kashmiris, but also to Pakistan. When we say separatists and Pakistan are a part of the problem, we have to work out ways to engage with them, so that they also become a part of the solution," she said.
She claimed that NIA was not really helping. "It is further alienating the people. I know I will be branded anti-national for saying this, but Syed Salahuddin's sons are not militants or stone-pelters, they are just common citizens who were left by their father 30 years ago."
" They were very young at the time and their mother brought them up with great difficulty. Similarly, Afzal Guru's hanging also alienated Kashmiris," she said.
"My father tried to mainstream the Kashmir issue. He put it on the table in a way that you could think of a resolution of the Kashmir problem without secession. So we talk about open borders, we talk about having some kind of joint advisory council, we talk about pre-1947 routes… But whenever you talk about resolution of Kashmir's problems, engagement with Pakistan, you are dubbed as ISI or Pakistani and things like that," she added. |
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