The Hindu : Farooq questions relevance of Kashmir panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 16, 2002

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Farooq questions relevance of Kashmir panel

By Shujaat Bukhari

The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, on a motorcycle with the tricolour during the Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar on Thursday. _ Photo: Nissar Ahmad

SRINAGAR AUG.15. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, today questioned the ``relevance'' of the Kashmir Committee, headed by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, who is scheduled to begin the first round of talks with the separatist leaders in Srinagar tomorrow. He also accused New Delhi of creating a ``strange atmosphere with the refrain of free and free elections in Jammu and Kashmir''.

In an emotional speech after unfurling the Tricolour on Independence Day at the highly-fortified Bakhshi Stadium here, Dr. Abdullah minced no words in targeting New Delhi for ``not understanding'' the Kashmir problems.

Though he started his 45-minute long address with his ``favourite'' subject of Pakistan bashing and said ``the people who had been sent to dig our graves are now training their guns on their own masters'', he also came down heavily on the multi-track initiatives launched for resolving the Kashmir tangle.

He welcomed the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee's speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in which he conceded that New Delhi had committed mistakes on Kashmir. Dr. Abdullah said, ``the biggest ever blunder was in 1953 (when Sheikh Abdullah was dethroned) yet another in 1984, I do not know how many more mistakes are on way and it will be late when they (New Delhi) come to their senses''.

He accused New Delhi of creating ``a strange atmosphere with the refrain of free and fair elections, which is totally unwarranted''. ``The Congress leaders who used to fill the ballot boxes are alive and the irony is that they are demanding Governor's rule now''.

Questioning the relevance of the Kashmir Committee, he said, ``now men like Mr. Jethmalani are talking to separatists and asking for Governor's rule. I ask him to first remove Narendra Modi and then talk about Kashmir. Where were you all these years? These people never entered Kashmir's political firmament over the last six years''. ``What is the agenda of the talks you are holding?'' ``Are you going to give Azadi to the Hurriyat or you have to reconcile with Kashmir's accession to India?'' he asked the panel members.

There were many ways to seek a solution to the Kashmir problem, but ``I want to make it emphatically clear that nobody in India will talk on the fundamental issue of Kashmir's accession to the Union''.

Dr. Abdullah asked the Central leaders, ``you shed tears and make a beeline to the spot when people die at Qasim Nagar or Kaluchak but where were you for the last six years when Kashmiris were dying for India. Did you remember those who died for this country. We understand all of this?'' ``You cannot make this nation strong by sowing the seeds of hatred between different communities''.

Talking about a major achievement of the Government, Dr. Abdullah said, ``we have restored the system in Kashmir''. The militants had set up Shariat Court and were themselves the judges, prosecutors and executors. ``Hats off to our judiciary. My salutations to Bilal Nazki who abolished the system of fake academic colleges with a single stroke of his pen''. (Justice Nazki is now a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court).

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