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| Sonia honours Puri as Indira valued him | | |
ABID SHAH
New Delhi, Oct 31: While honouring the eminent peace activist and journalist from Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Balraj Puri, here today for his ceaseless services to the State and other troubled parts of the country at numerous points of history, there was something amiss in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech delivered on the occasion.
Mr Puri who was conferred today the Indira Gandhi National Integration Award by Congress president and UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, was instrumental in convincing the late Indira Gandhi for a clause to be included in Shimla Agreement signed by her and the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in July 1972.
This unambiguously laid down that the final settlement of Kashmir would be decided bilaterally in the future and both India and Pakistan shall respect the Line of Control or LOC.
Now it is a documented fact that Mr Puri was given an audience by the late Indira Gandhi before the Shimla Agreement was signed. For quite sometime this was under wraps after the accord was signed but as years and decades passed by the octogenarian votary of peace from Jammu admitted this in interviews and writings by eminent scholars.
Though this fact is not all that necessary to be part of a citation or a speech at an award giving ceremony for as illustrious a personality as Mr Puri, nevertheless this proved to be a crucial turning point in the troubled history of the Indian subcontinent.
Thus, today’s event before a select gathering was meant to honour a person whose opinion was valued by Indira Gandhi whose 25th death anniversary falls today.
And yet it is not known whether this was an oversight or otherwise for whatsoever reasons that such an important omission could become conspicuous at today’s award ceremony.
In any case Mr Puri has earlier been conferred with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honour of the country, and no omission can rob him of the credit of playing a crucial role at one of the turning points of Indo-Pak relations that Shimla Accord between the two countries has come to signify.
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