Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 7: The All Party Delegation (APD) headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, which had visited Jammu and Kashmir on September 4 and 5, debated prevailing situation in the State for more than three hours in the Parliament House today and declared that there can be no compromise on national sovereignty and no place for violence in the civilized society.
Though officially the APD issued a brief statement to the media at the end of three hour long meeting, official sources told the Excelsior that the Centre Government has decided to increase presence of para-military forces in downtown and rural areas, where impact of about two-month long unrest in the Valley was more. Initially, more companies of CRPF are being deployed in these areas but, if it continued, the Centre has kept the option of deploying BSF there open.
Extending full support to Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP Government in Kashmir, the Centre today asked the State Government to ensure that all educational institutions, Government offices, commercial establishments and Civil Secretariat function normally and ensure that normal working of the State Government is not affected. For the purpose, sources said, the Union Home Ministry has decided to extend full support to the State.
“The normal Government functioning should start. Though the Government is running, the Centre wants full functioning of the Civil Secretariat, the Government seat, all other offices and, above all, the educational institutions, which have been shut for past about two months now, jeopardizing career of the students,’’ sources said, adding the Home Ministry has promised all help to the State Government in normal functioning of the offices, schools and shops as it has reports that people were suffering due to closure of shops of essential commodities and students were at the verge of losing one important year of their studies if the educational institutions remained closed for more days.
Noting that unrest was more in downtown and rural areas of the Valley, the Centre has taken a decision to deploy more para-military and police forces in these areas and was also considering the option of deploying BSF troops in selected areas to tackle the unrest.
An official statement issued after the APD meeting in New Delhi and mailed to the Excelsior, said the members of the All Party Parliamentary Delegation have expressed serious concern over the situation prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir. The statement was read out to the media by Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitendra Singh, a member of the APD.
“The members of the delegation were of the view that there is no place for violence in a civilized society,’’ the statement said and declared that there can be no compromises on the issues of national sovereignty.
Urging people of Jammu and Kashmir to shun the path of violence and resolve all issues through dialogue and discussion, the APD statement requested the Central and State Governments to take steps for dialogue with all stakeholders.
According to the statement, the APD members asked the Central and State Government to take steps to ensure that educational institutions, Government offices and commercial establishments start functioning at the earlier.
“The APD members requested the Government to take effective steps to ensure security for all citizens and provide medical treatment to citizens and security personnel injured in the agitation,’’ the statement added.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was part of the APD, couldn’t make it to the meeting today as he was busy in Uttar Pradesh. However, Congress Leader in Lok Sabha, Malikarjun Kharge was present. All three official members of the delegation including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Dr Jitendra Singh attended the meeting apart from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Ananth Kumar was not part of the APD but attended today’s meeting in his capacity as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
Extending full support to Mehbooba Mufti Government in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre Government, according to sources, has taken cognizance of the working of certain sections instigating terrorism and violence in the State, mainly the Kashmir valley by exploiting youth and children.
“The Government has decided that it would support all endeavours of Mehbooba Mufti Government as it was of the view that Pakistan and its agents were openly fuelling terrorism and unrest in the Valley for past about 60 days and have “enough resources’’ with them to keep the pot boiling,’’ sources said, adding the Centre wants to finish the “resources’’ of the enemy, which would go long way in tackling the unrest.
Reiterating that the Government of India was ready for talks with all stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir, it, however, made it clear that people of all three regions—Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh were equal stakeholders to any solution and not the Valley alone.
Sources said even the APD members were of unanimous view that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh deserved equal treatment and were equal stakeholders in any solution to addressing Kashmir problem.
Asserting that the APD members were now well-versed with situation in all three regions of the State, they said, many APD members were earlier not even aware about the problems of PoK, West Pakistani and other refugees but today they vociferously projected their demands in the APD meeting and called for their early solution. They were stunned to know that when the country was celebrating 70th year of Independence, the West Pakistani refugees didn’t have even basic facilities in the State.
Pointing out that members of Left Parties and Janata Dal-U including Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Sharad Yadav raised the demands for revocation of Armed Force Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and reduction of troops in the Valley but there were no takers of the demand at this stage.
Sources said the APD pitched for dialogue with all stakeholders which the Government reciprocated by saying it was prepared for discussions with all but made no reference to separatists Hurriyat Conference.
Some of the APD members also made demands for resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue, Confidence Building Measures and a “dual track” approach for bringing peace in the restive Valley.
In a brief chat with media persons, Dr Jitendra Singh was asked whether separatists would also come under the purview of “stakeholders”. He replied saying the Home Minister is open for dialogue with “all stake holders”. He did not elaborate.
To a similar question, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the separatist amalgamate is part of the “all stake holders”.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said there was no discussion on the performance of Mehbooba Mufti-led Jammu and Kashmir Government but leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi said personally he felt that the PDP-BJP Government has failed to handle the current situation, which continued for too long, leading to “the present mess”.
“This is not the time to blame. This is the time to work unitedly for bringing peace in Kashmir,” Yechury said.
Owaisi said in the APD meeting that a non-BJP and non-Congress fact-finding team of political parties should visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet a cross section of people to ascertain the loss of lives due to violence.
While demanding release of those “illegally jailed” in the Kashmir valley, the AIMIM leader said Union Home Minister should talk to the editors of four leading newspapers of Kashmir.
Yechury said Government should follow up its Kashmir outreach initiative by taking concrete steps like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had declared a unilateral ceasefire and held talks with militant group Hizbul Mujahideen.
Kharge said even though the Government had announced that pellet guns would be replaced by chilli-based non-lethal ammunition PAVA, one man died yesterday due to the injuries by pellets.
Yechury and Owaisi said the Home Minister denied that there was a plan to curtail the security provided to separatist leaders.
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