Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 3: Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir have a right to call for election boycott but it is for the electorate to decide what is good for them.
“Dissent is the essence of democracy and separatists have a right to dissent. They have a right to call for a boycott (of polls), but people have to think what is right for them,” Sayeed said at a function organised here to welcome a former employees’ leader into the party fold.
Sayeed said there is a need to engage separatists in a meaningful dialogue to address the Kashmir-issue and not to put them in jails.
“Democracy is a battle of ideas. We have to fight the separatists politically and engage them in a meaningful dialogue to find a solution to the Kashmir-issue, instead of putting them behind bars,” he said adding, “times have changed and battles are not won by swords.”
Solution to the Kashmir-issue lies within the four walls of the Constitution, said the former Chief Minister.
“Whatever we would like to achieve, we will have to achieve it under the ambit of Constitution. Whatever we have to solve, we will have to solve it democratically,” Sayeed said.
Kashmir is the biggest issue in the sub-continent and his party will play a positive role to create an environment for its amicable solution, he said.
“PDP is the only force, which thinks positively and only it can pull out the State from the prevailing situation of uncertainty,” Sayeed said.
Former Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC) president Khurshid Alam joined the PDP with his supporters at Sayeed’s residence.
Mr Sayeed said that the noises made by NC on AFSPA are patently phoney and meaningless in view of the repression let loose by it on the people of the State. He said the gulf between the perception and practice of the NC has been a historical fact but it has comeout most pronouncedly during the last five years.
Mufti said the NC Government has reduced the demand for revocation of AFSPA to a “mere slogan” by its conduct on the ground. He said the people of Kashmir have witnessed worst atrocities and repression from the present Government, which is comparable only with the record of its own previous Governments. He said thousands of boys have been framed in fake cases jeopardising their future where as hundreds have been injured and rendered disabled by the use of most atrocious crowed control methods like pellet guns and chilly bombs which is used only in Kashmir.
Reiterating that the peaceful resolution of Jammu & Kashmir problem is inevitable for the growth and development of the subcontinent, Mufti said people of the State have to play an important role in this effort. He said it is now obivious that the resolution process can be carried forward only through a democratic process which is the lone acceptable option in present day world.
“We have to think wisely and strategically and use our vote effectively to be able to reclaim our rights which have been seriously compromised over the past”, he said.
The former Chief Minister said he had urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his recent meeting with him that the positive change brought about through a genuine electoral process in Pakistan should be seized upon to engage that country in serious dialogue in all issues including Kashmir.
He said it was encouraging that Pakistan had overcome its internal contradictions through democratic process and expressed hope that two countries work seriously for resolution of Kashmir.
Mufti said the increasing support that the PDP is receiving from all sections of people throughout the State gave him confidence that his party would emerge as a vehicle of change that could help a resolution process gain acceptability from the people of the State. He said in absence of people’s acceptability no resolution could actually be effective.
Referring to the relationship his Government had with its employees, Mufti said he is proud to the civil servants of Jammu & Kashmir who constitute one of the best administrations in the country. He said it is his belief that whatever good through his Government was able to do without the required capacity in our administration.
Mufti said the people of the State have to use their political discretion correctly be able to retrieve the loss that we have suffered in the past. He said there is no alternative to renegotiate of the terms with NHPC on the power projects executed by that agency.
This, he said, is necessary if the State has to progress and provide decent living to its people. Similarly the Jammu & Kashmir Bank which was a tool of empowerment of the State has been reduced to a mere commercial concern by shifting to RBI. “We have a long struggle a head but it is possible to regain our rights only through democratic and Constitutional methods”.
He said the Government of India would go out of its way to find our proposals in view of the capacities that we had built which is in contrast to the present situation when the State has failed in executing even the normal plan. He said the reported loss of Rs 2100 crores during the last financial year on account of the inability of the State Government is a serious development and it is becoming increasingly clear that this Government has flopped even in routine functioning.
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