Kashmir is a 'political' problem: Omar-21/09/2010

21/09/2010

Kashmir is a 'political' problem: Omar

(IT HAS BECOME A POLITICAL PROBLEM BUT SOLUTION CAN BE GIVEN BY POLITICAL WILL AND THEIR CONCENSUS COLLECTIVILY...AND DEFINITLY WITH ALL 'J AND K AWAM'S' SUPPORT AND EFFORT.THEY NEED TO FORGET AND FORGIVE FEELINGS OF REVENGE AND HATRED FOR EACH OTHER...I MEAN HINDU AND MUSLIMS FOR PEACE AND SEPARATISTS SHOULD RETHINK THEIR STAND!!!)

Jammu/New Delhi: Rejecting criticism of his style of functioning, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that the main problem confronting the state was "political" and lessons need to be learned from the crisis that has seen strife across the Valley in the past few months.



In an interview with CNN-IBN news channel, Abdullah said that the slogans during protests in Kashmir were not directed at his government and those trying to link the problem to his style of functioning were underplaying the complexity of the issue

"We need to bring a political solution to Jammu and Kashmir, both in the cause of a dialogue with Pakistan and also through an internal dialogue... By focusing on my style of governance, you are distracting from the main issue. In which protest did you see slogans against my government? The slogans were 'Hame chahiye Azadi, Go India Go'. What has that to do with my style of governance," he said.

"There are lessons to be learnt from this crisis - lessons I have to learn, lesson the state has to learn and important lessons the Government of India has to learn. Don't underplay the complexity of the issue that if I change my style of governance, miraculously, everything will get better. Till June, you hadn't a problem with my style," Abdullah observed.



On the all-party delegation's visit to the state, he said it had gone better than expected. Answering a question about separatists terming the visit of all-party delegation a cosmetic exercise, Abdullah said that if it was beginning of something bigger, then it was an important first step.

Asked if he supported the manner in which members of all-party delegation met the separatists, the chief minister said that one of the problems with Kashmir has been that thrust has been laid on building a consensus. "If we had waited for a consensus before these meetings with the separatists, it wouldn't have happened. The fact that happened, there is hope. I am glad that they didn't wait for any consensus to emerge."

He said nobody expected the separatists to move away from their stated positions during their meeting with members of all-party delegation. Asked about demands for his resignation, Abdullah said everyone was entitled to an opinion and his job was to do everything possible to restore normalcy in the Valley.



He said that those who say that his removal will lead to an immediate end to violence, should explain their relationship to the violence.

"Clearly, that point of view raises more questions than answers. Either they are overstating their position or there is something more deep rooted than that... hopefully, the deaths of these individuals will not go in vain and that we will have a political process that will lead to a lasting solution."

On the criticism of his absence from Srinagar on Eid, the chief minister said he was in the city in the morning and met media and people. "The main issue was that in spite of a lot of effort to cause bloodshed, Eid passed of without any loss of life, without any serious injuries even though unfortunately, some government buildings were gutted."

Justifying his party National Conference's demand for withdrawing Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of the Valley, he said nobody has demonised the Army.

"The AFSPA is unfortunately a draconian law. That has outlived its usefulness in parts of the Valley and the state... In what way does that demonise the Army? These sort of emotional responses are largely triggered so that we become apologetic about the demand that we are making," he said



'Why Omar's residence for delegation?'

Eyebrows have been raised in political circles here over the Jammu and Kashmir government's choice of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's residence as a venue for the visiting all-party delegation to meet political parties and groups.

Unlike Srinagar, where the delegation led by union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met various groups at a neutral venue, Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex, the delegation here met the groups at the chief minister's residence.

"It appears to be a politically motivated decision," said Subhash Gupta, an activist of the People's Democratic Party here.

This was also the view of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which wondered why the chief minister's residence had been chosen as a venue for such crucial meetings. "There is a state guest house where the delegation could have met the people or, like the past, it could have met at Raj Bhavan," said Satish Sharma, a BJP leader.

Official sources disclosed to IANS that the venue was changed late Monday night after "directions from above" - from Hotel Ashok to the chief minister's residence.

The all-party delegation is visiting the state to meet with a cross-section of people following the spiral of violence gripping Kashmir Valley since June 11 that has seen 103 people killed in firing by security forces on protesters.



All-party team meet Shabir Shah, Pandits in Jammu

The all-party delegation visiting Jammu and Kashmir met a cross-section of people here Tuesday and heard the common complaint of a "government deficit" and demand that Chief Minister Omar abdullah resign. Members of the team visited arrested separatist leader Shabir Shah and a Kasmiri Pandits migrant camp as well.

Complaining that "governance deficit is an understatement", the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded that Abdullah step down. "There is no government at all," said BJP's state legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta. His views were echoed by many others, including some members of a Jammu traders body.

In a hard-hitting presentation before the 39-member delegation led by union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the state unit of the BJP said the chief minister had "by design" allowed the situation to come to such a pass that "Delhi is forced to give concessions like autonomy to Kashmir".

It demanded the removal of this "most unpopular chief minister" without even a minute's delay. The situation, the party stated, could have been controlled and peace and order restored had the chief minister acted in time.



"But, he deliberately avoided doing so because he wanted such a situation to surface in which Delhi is seen as killers of Kashmiris and forced to grant autonomy to Kashmir." The BJP leaders also expressed their anger over some members of the all-party delegation meeting separatist leaders at their homes in the Kashmir Valley Monday.

"This is shocking that the delegation constituted mini groups to meet separatists and allowed them to air their anti-India views in public," Gupta told reporters.

Gupta said that delegation members like Sitaram Yechury, Gurudas Dasgupta and Ram Vilas Paswan by meeting the separatists had given a "respectability" to anti-India forces in Jammu and Kashmir. "This was a clear violation of the mandate of the delegation," he said.

Before heading to Jammu, the political leaders visited some hospital in Srinagar and spoke to some of those wounded in firing by security forces in the Kashmir Valley to understand their agony. Home Minister P. Chidambaram and other delegation members also visited Tangmarg town in the valley where six people were killed Sep 13.



Later in the day, a three-member group led by DMK MP T.R. Baalu met Shabir Shah at the Col. Chopra nursing home of the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu where the separatist leader is undergoing treatment.

The chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party has been arrested for over a year now under the Public Safety Act and is charged with instigating people and disrupting peace. He has been lodged in the Kot Bhalwal jail on the outskirts of Jammu.

He had not been keeping well lately and is being treated in hospital. Like separatist leaders in the Kashmir Valley, Shah too put forth the demand for right to self determination for Kashmiris to decide their future.

A separate five-member group led by Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury visited a Kashmiri Pandits migrant camp at Muthi on the edge of Jammu that houses over 5,000 Hindu migrants who fled the Valley when secessionist violence erupted there over 20 years ago.

The team visited the camp to have a first-hand account of the conditions of the Pandits and know their views as well. Shibban Pandita, one of the migrants, told the delegates that Kashmiri Hindus had been "living in inhuman conditions" ever since they migrated to Jammu in 1990.

Kashmiri migrant women said that though the government had been holding promises of "giving us a life of dignity, that promise is honoured only in breach". "We had applied for jobs in the Valley but for that we would have to stay in the Valley only. That's an unacceptable condition," said a young woman, who identified herself as Pushpa.



Over 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits living in the Valley migrated when violence erupted there in 1990. Most of them came to Jammu and were housed by the government in various camps on the edges of city. They had to initially live in tents until the government later built one-room tenements for them.

Over 100 people have died in unending street protests in the Kashmir Valley since June 11 in retaliatory firing by security forces on stone-pelting mobs. The all-party delegation led by Home Minister P. Chidambaram is visiting Jammu and Kashmir to get a sense of the ground situation before deciding on steps to defuse tensions.

However, Jammu saw some violence too. Over two dozen refugees from Pakistan-administered Kashmir were injured in a baton charge by police here as they held a protest sit-in against being denied permission to meet the all-party delegation

A group called Panun Kashmir, which also represents Kashmiri Hindus, were not given time to meet the team. "I think many voices were heard and few might have not got time... but it's a step forward," said a government official here.

Source: IANS