Let 1975 accord be the basis for solution: Gujral

By K. K. Katyal

NEW DELHI, JUNE 29. Emphatically pleading that the current debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly's resolution on autonomy be treated as an internal affair of the country, the former Prime Minister, Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, has suggested that the 1975 accord be made the basis of efforts for a solution. ``We are dealing with our people. There should not even be the slightest shade of suspicion about them,'' he said in a conversation. To drive home the point, he added: ``Patriots do not live in New Delhi alone.''

Equally strongly he disapproved of the idea of trifurcation of the State on communal lines (as had been suggested by the RSS). This myopic ideacut at the very root of the country's unity and implied a recognition of the two-nation theory. The unity in diversity of Jammu and Kashmir was a microcosm of the religious, ethnic and cultural composition of the country as a whole and nothing should be done to disturb it, he said.

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