Jammu: Stating that the approach adopted by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the only way to resolve the Kashmir dispute, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday claimed that if the dispute was not resolved under Prime Minister Narendra Modi it will never be resolved.
“There is no other option but only the Vajpayee doctrine. We will have to follow it and they (Pakistan) too will have to follow it, if we have to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of this mess and this cycle of violence, this is the only option,” she said.
She claimed that it was the only opportunity which the people have to resolve the dispute and if it was not resolved under Modi, it won’t be resolved ever.
“I said this yesterday also that if during the Modi period, if our country and Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir people won’t resolve the issue then this issue will never be resolved. You don’t get such a powerful leader everyday who can take decision,” she said on Sunday.
She said that her government had hardly completed three months, when the ongoing cycle of violence in Kashmir started after the killing of Burhan Wani.
“What was the fault of our government that only within three months there was an encounter and such a situation was created and so much of bloodshed and violence started,” she said.
She said that rumours were spread against her government on one pretext or the other, but made it clear that the state has a special place in the heart of the India and nobody is going to do anything with that special place.
She said the parents of the children who were either killed or injured should be asked what type of ‘Azaadi’ (freedom) they were looking after.
“I don’t know what people call Azaadi, if Azaadi has to be achieved in such a way where small children lose their vision, their parents must be asked whether they are ready to give such a sacrifice for such an elusive Azaadi,” she said.
She said that when there is violence all the freedom is lost.
The Chief Minister said the situation in Kashmir was such that the shopkeepers were not able to open their shops and the employees were not able to attend the office and they were not afraid of the police or security forces, but were afraid of the small kids who were “attacking” them.
“A ten-year-old kid who does not know what politics is, what Kashmir issue is, what forces are playing behind him, is being used to target security force camps and police stations,” she said.
Mehbooba said her party joined hands with BJP so that that both the parties can take ahead the Vajpayee doctrine and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the mandate to make it happen.
“We came together to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of this bloodshed and to bring it out of this violence. We had to adopt the Vajpayee doctrine. When Vajpayee went to Pakistan then General Musharraf did not come to meet him and then there was Kargil but later he came to India and said that whatever was necessary we will discuss, and make border irrelevant, but it happened only when Vajpayee showed a big heart,” she said.
She said that Gen Musharraf after doing the “futile exercise” of going to United Nations and other bodies realised that the Vajpayee’s approach was the only way to resolve the issue. He promised that his land would not be allowed to be used for “anti-India” activities.
“As a result, violence and militancy showed a decline in Kashmir,” she said.
While attacking the present Pakistani dispensation of fueling the violence in Kashmir, the Chief Minister said that she was hopeful that after once again realising the “futility” of approaching United Nations and other platforms it will have to come and hold the hand of friendship with India.
“I am hopeful as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attempted and the time will come when Pakistan after exploring all futile options will have to reply to India’s friendship with friendship,” she said.
While speaking about Insha Malik, the girl who lost her vision due to pellets and is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi, an emotional Mufti said that she even asked the doctors to take her eye if they could restore Insha’s sight.
“Insha wanted to become a doctor, is there anything which would bring back her sight, I say it from my heart … I told the doctors that I have seen a lot of life and if I have to give one of my eyes to bring sight to her I am ready to give it,” she said.
She said that by closing schools and hampering the education of the youth of Kashmir the issue cannot be resolved.
“Do they want that our children should not go to school, it is a political issue, an idea but when you attack camps, police stations, then we are heading to the freedom of Syria and Libya … if we continue to follow that path of violence and give stones to small children then the day is not far away that while looking for Azaadi we end up making it a land of handicapped people,” she said.
Mehbooba said that she was told that small kids slapped an elderly shopkeeper who opened his store.
“Stones are not the solution of anything, I appeal to the people to help restore peace, the whole country is looking towards us,” she said.
She said that the all-party delegation will come to Jammu and she would want people who want to end the cycle of violence in Kashmir to be in the delegation and not what has happened in the past.
“Send the people who want dialogue and not violence, people who want to end the crisis with dialogue, whom the people of Jammu and Kashmir can trust. In the past, interlocutors came and filed reports but it yielded no output,” she said.
The Chief Minister said all the parties should join hands to bring normalcy and help restore peace in the valley.
PTI