Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 23: Maintaining that there was no readymade solution to Kashmir problem and it needs to be addressed by sitting together with an open mind, spiritual leader and founder of the Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shanker today said that the conflict was a cash cow for terrorists and their promoters, who have vested interests to keep the pot boiling.
“The vested interest don’t want resolution of Kashmir problem and return of peace in the Valley as state of unrest has become a cash cow for them,” he said while talking to the Excelsior on sidelines of a day-long conference on `Kashmir: Back to Paradise’, organized by South Asian Forum for Peace, an organization of the Art of Living Foundation, here today.
Admitting that these vested interests may try their best to sabotage his initiative on Kashmir, Sri Sri, however, stressed that such elements would not be able to deter him from raising the voice of common people in Valley who want peace as they are fed up with unrest. “People have been caught between Hartal and curfew, they want peace and education to their children but are scared of armed terrorists and their promoters. We will give voice to these people,” he said and exuded confidence of winning over hearts of the misguided youth once they come in his contact.
In response to a query, the spiritual Guru informed that in connection with the peace initiative, he had also met the PoK Governor though he did not elaborate on their meeting and only said that majority people in Pakistan also wanted peace between the two countries.
Regarding cross border terrorism and repeated ceasefire violations, Sri Sri said that the Government would deal with these gun wielding terrorists and Pak army while he would concentrate on resolving Kashmir by involving the people here.
Terming trust-deficit as another major hurdle in forging peace in trouble torn Kashmir, Sri Sri said that his organization has tried to provide a platform to all the stakeholders for sharing their ideas. “Trust deficit is the biggest problem. People don’t trust Government and the system but we can do away with this by involving all the stakeholders, who will sit together without any prejudice and find out a solution for peace, which can be evolved by none but only people of Kashmir,” he said and predicted that intellectuals and spirituals would bring Kashmir back to paradise.
Earlier, during a media briefing and also while delivering key note address in the conference, Sri Sri drew attention towards radicalization of youth as well as drug abuse in Valley and lamented that no work was done so far on the de-radicalization and de-addiction.
Sri Sri sought to convince that his initiative has nothing to do with any political party or Government agency but it was purely a non-governmental secular set up just to bring Kashmir back to normalcy. He also informed that the organization wanted to organize the conference in Kashmir valley but could not do so because of adverse climatic conditions and Darbar move to winter capital of the State.
However, he announced that next event of the forum will be organized in Kashmir at Lal Chowk to listen to Kashmir youth and other stakeholders.
On the occasion, Sri Sri also informed about various initiatives being taken by his organization for skill development among Kashmiri youth, rebuilding of burnt schools in Valley and women empowerment etc.
During the conference proceedings, Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Subrata Saha also expressed his views on ‘Dialogue & reconciliation for sustainable peace’ and stressed the need to think out of box for peace in Valley.
He listed the challenges in achieving sustainable peace and said that ultimate beneficiary of the peace process has to be common people of J&K, who need to be ensured economic development, security, access to law and justice, healing of past wounds and alienation besides taking care of historical factors.
” Dialogue is a very deliberate process and even preliminary discussion may take days and we also have to be mentally prepared for one step backward while taking two steps ahead,” he said and highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance between secrecy and transparency.
Lt Gen Saha also drew attention towards external factors in Kashmir problem and said that waiving of Chinese flags in Kashmir was yet to be deeply analyzed by the agencies even as there are different aspects of Pak involvement.
Senior PDP leader Nizam-ud-Din Bhat also presented his paper and elaborated on emergence of Kashmir problem and its impact.
“There is need of open debate to address the issue by involving all stakeholders and assuring them a better future,” he said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
Comments are closed.