*No ban, but we will marginalize separatists
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 25: Asserting that security forces were in firm command of the situation, both hinterland as well as Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said today that thousands of people joining the burials of martyr police personnel was a turning point in the Valley and the Government was trying to marginalize the Hurriyat Conference activities instead of imposing ban on them even as he ruled out imposition of Governor’s Rule in the State.
In an interview to Republic TV, Jaitley, the Finance Minister, who also holds additional charge of the Defence Ministry, admitted that it was wrong on part of the Ministers not to attend wreath laying ceremony or visit houses of the martyr police personnel initially but said when the issue was pointed out all BJP Ministers and even Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti attended wreath laying ceremony and visited houses of the police martyrs.
“I personally don’t find any reasons why they (the Ministers) shouldn’t visit houses of martyr police personnel for meeting their families and paying tributes to them,’’ he told the interviewer.
Jaitley said when he was in Srinagar (during GST Council meeting), the Chief Minister told her that terrorists are killing our own people. “How can I have sympathies with them (the terrorists)’’? he quoted Mehbooba as having said and added “this is very valid reason. She has no sympathies with terrorists, who are killing own people. The Chief Minister was not upset with NIA raids on separatists’’. However, he hastened to add, that no comments by Mehbooba on NIA raids could be “tactical’’.
The Defence Minister said there has been “counter reaction’’ among the people of Kashmir against the killings of police personnel.
“You can see the burials of police officers, who were killed recently, were attended by hundreds of thousands of people, who openly expressed anguish over the killings. Large number of people joining the burials of martyrs is a turning point in the history of Kashmir as earlier only few people were attending burials of the people killed by the militants,’’ he added.
To a question on whether the Centre will impose ban on the Hurriyat Conference, Jaitley said by imposing ban, the Hurriyat leaders won’t disappear. He added that separatists have lost lot of credibility. “We have evidence of this (the separatists losing credibility). Leave aside the comparison of 2010 unrest. Even if we compare 2016 with 2017, the number of stone throwers has dwindled. The CRPF and local police were in full command of the situation’’, he added.
“Our attempt is to marginalize the activities of Hurriyat leaders and we are working in that direction. We must not yield any further ground to the separatists while fighting them. The citizens can’t be pushed to a situation, where they have sympathies with separatists instead of ignoring them.
“At the same time, when we fight the stone pelters, our attempt should be that students, traders, youths etc are on our side. They should be with the Government and not with the stone pelters. Even if some of them are with the stone pelters, they should be weaned away. Our efforts should be aimed that average Kashmir didn’t become stonepelter. He should stand behind us and not the separatists’’.
Virtually ruling out imposition of Governor’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, Jaitley said when the Governor Rule is imposed, a debate begins as to why there is no democratically elected Government in the State.
“You can’t have bureaucracy running the State,’’ he asserted.
Saying that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is not on the back-foot, Jaitley said she has different role to play.
“People function in their own environment. Even late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to talk of healing touch, other initiatives. The State parties have their own role. They do make such statements. I take it as an opinion of the Chief Minister and leader of a political party,’’ he added in response to a question on Mehbooba’s repeated demands for holding talks with stakeholders in Kashmir.
Maintaining that security forces have made the terrorists on the run, Jaitley, however, said he won’t call it complete normalcy in Kashmir but, at the same time, the people shouldn’t judge the situation on the basis of sporadic incidents of last one and a half months.
“There has been huge improvement in the situation. Security forces clearly have upper hand viz-a-viz terrorist operations in the State. There are two kinds of terrorists, local and outsiders. Both are being contained. There have been casualties of militants inside the Valley including South Kashmir. Infiltration has been checked. There were virtually daily infiltration attempts. Many infiltrators have been killed,’’ the Defence Minister maintained.
Asserting that nobody can ever claim that situation was completely normal in Kashmir, Jaitley said Jammu and Kashmir has been impacted by both terrorism and separatism…the terrorism is partly supported from across and partly within.
“The terrorists do strike back by targeting patrol parties of security personnel when they suffer casualties. Sometimes, the patrol parties are caught off-guard. But overall despite three-four attacks, the situation is well under control,’’ he said.
Jaitley said most of the terrorists are on the run as their three “supreme commanders’’ have been killed in a row.
Admitting that radicalization has taken place in the Kashmir valley over the past 10 to 15 years, he said Kashmir, which is known for Sufism had moved slightly towards Wahabism, some of whom were imported and were responsible for making announcements from the religious places for instigating stone pelters to target security forces.
Referring to PDP-BJP alliance, Jaitley said the tie-up was forced by arithmetic of last Assembly election results.
“There were only two options (after the Assembly election results). Either, imposition of Governor’s Rule in the State or PDP-BJP alliance as no other party or parties were in a position to form the Government. We realized ideological differences with PDP but our target is separatism. We needed mainstream party. We tried an experiment (with the PDP). The Congress too had tried similar experiments earlier,’’ he added.
The Defence Minister said Army has freedom and option of taking tough actions to combat terrorism. However, he added, every institution has to go by the norms.
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