Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. PTI file photo
A high-level “policy planning group” of the Congress led by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, which arrived here on a two day visit on Saturday, asked the Central and J&K governments to keep the dialogue process with separatists open.
“The Central as well as the state governments know who the stakeholders are and they should talk to them (separatists) and try to resolve the issue,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after the group’s arrival in Srinagar.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by raising the emotions of people, “but has remained silent since taking over the reins of the country”.
“Modi’s election victory was 90% because of Kashmir. In our rule, one soldier was beheaded by Pakistani troops, but such instances have happened a number of times now in their rule and still the prime minister is silent. He had raised the emotions of the people across the country in the Lok Sabha elections by raking up Kashmir and militants versus the rest of the country, but since he took over, he has taken Kashmir to the end of destruction,” he said.
The group led by Singh, besides Azad include, former Union home minister P Chidambaram, party general secretary Ambika Soni and and Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh. Immediately after their arrival in Srinagar, the group held an executive committee meeting of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee at Hari Niwas here.
Azad, also a former chief minister of J&K, said when the Congress was in power in alliance with the National Conference, they had a multi-pronged strategy to improve the political and economic situation in the militancy hit state.
“The (cross-LoC) trade routes were opened between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and J&K. Not only trade, but lots of people were coming. With this, people were expecting that there would be more improvement in situation. So whether it was tourism, employment, trade or militancy; in my tenure (as CM) in 2007, we had declared south Kashmir militancy free and today where is south Kashmir? It is boiling. Today no one is coming to Kashmir, the tourists are not coming,” he rued.
On his party’s stand on Article 35A of the Constitution, the senior Congress leader evaded direct answer. “This committee of ours was formed much before the issue of 35A erupted,” he said.
The Manmohan-led group has already visited Jammu and held discussions with dozens of delegations from different parts of the region.