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| Mufti makes an important statement | | 'Kashmir to stay with India' | |
Neha
JAMMU, July 31: Patron of PDP and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Tuesday made an important statement in Jammu while addressing a function organised in connection with the foundation day of the party. "Kashmir will not go anywhere from India, as it is the part and parcel of country," he said. Earlier in Kashmir, he had said that the solution to the Kashmir issue had to be within the Indian constitutional framework. He had hailed former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Kashmir and he hailed the ailing BJP veteran in Jammu as well, saying the former Prime Minister had a definite roadmap for resolution of Kashmir issue.
The statement of Mufti would be appreciated, as he has, unlike most of other Kashmiri leaders, spoken in an unambiguous language. However, what he said was not enough to allay the people's apprehension that the PDP might insist on self-rule or on a dispensation that is outside the constitutional framework of India. The PDP leadership has been trying its best to create for itself a strong and stable constituency in Jammu province. It can, as the mood of the people of Jammu province, like the people of Kashmir province, is anti-NC and anti-Congress. The people of Jammu province are anti-NC and anti-Congress because both the parties are working in tandem and creating difficulties not only for the people of Jammu province but also the rest of the Indians and the country as a whole.
The PDP leadership can capture some space the NC and the Congress occupy in certain pockets, but it can happen only if it adopts a line that counters and negates the NC-Congress line. It is good that Mufti Sayeed said that Kashmir shall ever remain part of India. He can win the hearts and minds of the people of Jammu province more if he convinces them that he will not allow anyone to undo the process of the state's constitutional and political integration with India and that he would work for a system of governance that gives equal rights to all sections of society and all the three regions of the state. Such an assurance on his part is necessary to clear doubts in the minds of the people.
Mufti Sayeed has everything to gain and nothing to lose by following a courageous policy. The best thing for him to do would be to focus attention on issues of governance, inter-regional relations and socio-economic and administrative grievances of the people and leave the India-Pakistan relations to the care of the Indian Foreign Office. Even otherwise, no State Government can interfere in matters which are within the domain of the Central Government. |
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