New Delhi: In what may give new ammunition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under pressure over the passage of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill, contradictory views emerged from the opposition Congress on former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah`s controversial statement on Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
“Kashmir belongs to India and every inch of Kashmir that is illegally occupied by Pakistan needs to be returned to India as it belongs to us,” Congress leader Pramod Tiwari told ANI here. Congress leader Manish Tewari, however, extended his full support to Abdullah`s statement, saying that neither Pakistan could take Kashmir nor could India take control of the PoK.
“Dr. Farooq Abdullah is absolutely correct. The 1998 nuclear test froze the power balance in South Asia into perpetuity. Pakistan can`t take Jammu and Kashmir and it will be very difficult for us to get PoK back. A solution has to be found within these realities,” Tewari told ANI.
The Congress leader asserted it is imperative that the `4 point formula` that was discussed between former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf should be revisited”The only real solution is to try and make the borders between the two Kashmir`s irrelevant,” he added.Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti had yesterday lashed out at those saying Muslims should “go to Pakistan” every time there was an ideological disagreement.
“To those who ask [Muslims] to go to Pakistan, I want to say that the nation owns us and we own the nation. Indian Muslims follow the real Islam. This is also because the Hindu majority [community] is very tolerant. Babasaheb must have imbibed tolerance from Hinduism.”
Mufti said speaking in the Lok Sabha during the discussion commemorating the Constitution and its architect Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.Abdullah had earlier courted controversy with his remark that India should give up its conquest of trying to control the PoK as it belonged to Pakistan.
“That is part of Pakistan and it will continue to remain so. This (Jammu and Kashmir) is part of India and it will continue to remain so. The only solution is that both India and Pakistan talk and find some way out through negotiations,” he told the media.
ANI