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| Repeal of AFSPA: JKPCC chief Soz speaks the truth, snubbed NC, PDP | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 15: JKPCC chief and former Union Minister Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz has done well to put things in perspective and take on his coalition partner National Conference (NC) and the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which have been demanding revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Prof Soz has made it amply clear that "sensitive issues like revocation of AFSPA cannot be decided or considered merely on the demand of a group or an organization." "It needs lot of exercise and discussions at broader level and collective consensus. It requires discussions with the Army General and suggestions from the experts on security related matters…This issue is required to be discussed by the Union Cabinet / Cabinet Committee on Security and even in the Parliament. After thorough discussion at various levels, a collective consensus was needed to be made for taking such a decision," Prof Soz has said in Jammu at the party headquarters. He did plain-speaking yesterday without naming any political party or group.
Prof Soz needs to be appreciated for his candid observations. He has done a right thing at a right time. It is obvious that what he has said is consistent with the New Delhi's line. After all, he is heading the JKPCC, he is member of the Rajya Sabha and he is former Union Minister. He visits New Delhi at regular intervals and meets the party bosses and those in the government, including the Prime Minister. To be more precise, he is aware of the New Delhi's stand on the AFSPA and his could be construed as an authentic voice.
The manner in which Prof Soz dealt with the whole issue and emphasized that it was not an easy job for anyone in the country to even tinker slightly with the AFSPA considering the prevailing anarchy in Kashmir and the terrorist-related activities there must have upset Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the PDP leaders. Everyone knows that they have made withdrawal or revocation of the AFSPA the cornerstone of their speeches. They are trying their level best to identify themselves with the Kashmiri separatists, who want New Delhi to withdraw everything Indian from Kashmir and enable them to play their nefarious games in the Valley with utmost ease. It is hardly necessary to point out here that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the PDP leaders talk about the Army and the AFSPA at every available forum and in their public speeches. Their whole objective is to demoralize the Army and paramilitary forces and create a free-for-all situation in the Kashmir Valley.
The application of the AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir in general and in the Kashmir Valley in particular is a must. For, the Kashmir Valley has been gripped by the Pakistani-sponsored terrorism, with mercenaries and regular Pakistani Army officers and ISI saboteurs doing all that they could to foment anti-India troubles since the late 1980s, when the National Conference leadership subverted and murdered democracy, rigged the elections wholesale to retain control over the state power and put the enraged Kashmiri Muslims on a road to separation. Ever since then, the Army have been fighting magnificently and making supreme sacrifices to defend the borders and maintain law and order in the state in general and the turbulent Kashmir Valley in particular. During these more than 20 years of turmoil in Kashmir, thousands of our soldiers and paramilitary force personnel have lost their precious lives for the cause of the country in the state.
It is intriguing that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and others of his ilk, who otherwise live under the foolproof security cover provided by the Army and paramilitary forces, have been questioning the role of the Army and demanding withdrawal of the AFSPA. It is, however, a different matter that the Army chief General VK Singh and others have not allowed the likes of Omar Abdullah to accomplish what they want.
Now that the JKPCC chief has made it clear that the AFSPA just cannot be withdrawn from the state as demanded by the NC, the PDP and similar other outfits, it is time for Omar Abdullah and similar other Kashmir-based leaders to forget that they would ever be in a position to dictate terms. They must remember that they have no right to communalize and politicize the institution of the Army. It is the prerogative of the Army to act in the manner it wants taking into consideration the nature of threat from across the border to the national security a well as the nature of threat posed by the Pakistani agents in Kashmir.
India is at war with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, war waged by Pakistan and fanatics. The need of the hour is to strengthen our war machine in Kashmir and on the India-Pakistan borders and Line of Control, not to weaken it by attacking the institution of the Army and demanding withdrawal of the AFSPA. It is heartening to note that we have a Defence Minister in the person of AK Antony and Army chief in the person of General VK Singh who knew how to deal with the likes of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and show them their rightful place. |
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