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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defied
terrorism and continued his roundtable
discussions with various groups with
Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and proposed
setting up 5 groups to consider various
issues but vowed to fight terrorism from
Pakistan.
Insisting that the J&K was the “top most
priority” for his Government, he proposed
the creation of 5 tracks of special groups
which will initiate proposals that could
resolve the main issues of the people of
the State. The tracks proposed by Singh
are:
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Evolve Confidence Building Measures (CBM)
to improve the condition of people
affected by militancy.
-
Strengthen relations across Line of
Control (LoC), increase goods traffic, and
open up new routes such as Kargil-Skardu.
-
Economic development, jobs generation,
balanced development.
-
Good governance, zero tolerance on rights
violation, and strengthen the right to
information.
-
Strengthen Center-State ties, democracy,
and secularism.
The PM noted that sub-regional and ethnic
differences between the regions of J&K
will be handled by the Center-State ties
track. He was referring to the presence of
various religions, ethnic groups, and
geographical boundaries in the state.
Jammu has a Hindu majority and larger than
the Kashmir Valley. Leh has a Buddhist
majority and is larger than Jammu. Kashmir
Valley itself has 50% Sunni and the rest
are divided into Shia, Gujjars, and
Bakerwals. The Kashmiri Pandits were
ethnically cleansed from the Valley in
1989 by the terrorists, but the Hurriyat
claims that it was the then Governor
Jagmohan who created the divisions and got
the Hindus to migrate out of the Valley.
Jagmohan has rejects this accusation
vehemently.
Singh regretted that the so-called
moderate political group Hurriyat
Conference spurned the Government’s
invitation to attend the roundtable.
Instead of being a positive force behind
the initiative, they chose not to attend
because the conference was “overcrowded”
and filled with “political hypocrites and
renegades.” They also wanted to meet with
the Prime Minister on the sidelines on a
one-on-one basis. Thankfully, the Prime
Minister’s Office declined to give this
special treatment yet again. The Singh had
met with the Hurriyat Conference in New
Delhi earlier and had personally requested
their presence at the roundtable.
Successive elections in J&K have attracted
large populations to vote and in many
cases, the people themselves have
identified, caught, or handed over
terrorists who were trying to stop the
election process. Weary of terrorism,
devoid of development, and missing out on
the growth going on in the rest of the
nation, Kashmiris have clearly indicated
that they want to be part of the Indian
democracy.
This is not the first time that the
Hurriyat has lost the initiative. In 2001,
they
spurned multiple Indian requests
citing the most flimsy reasons. The
ensuing Shah-Pant conversations between
the two nations rendered the Hurriyat
irrelevant at that point in time.
If the Hurriyat still wants to be
relevant, they it is time they see the
writing on the wall and participate in the
process.
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