Tarigami proposes all-party MPs panel to talk to Kashmiris
‘Inaction on working groups recommendations has discredited Delhi in Srinagar’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Jul 25: State Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and third-time MLA from Kulgam, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, has stressed on the need of engaging the young rebels of Kashmir valley in a credible process of dialogue. According to the proposal he claims to have submitted to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the UPA Chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Government of India must constitute a committee of different political parties’ Members of Parliament and authorize it to talk to all shades of opinion including the Kashmiri youngsters involved in demonstrations, stone pelting and clashes with Police and paramilitary forces.
Addressing a news conference here after holding a series of meetings with the Central leadership---including Prime Minister, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram---Tarigami expressed serious concern over the current phase of turmoil in Kashmir. He said that Government of India had demonstrated considerable complacency and ignored the dissent in Valley, particularly so after the Assembly elections of mass participation in 2008. He said it was unfortunate that both, state as well as the central government, had lost the faith and confidence shown by people in the governmental system.
Tarigami said that there was need to urgently engage the “disillusioned and alienated” younger generation of the Kashmiris in a credible talks process . He proposed Government of India to immediately constitute a committee of the MPs from all political parties for this purpose. He asserted that a dialogue process conducted by the Parliamentarians’ panel was expected to achieve results better than a process conducted by government officials or political leaders of a particular party or coalition.
“Be that an NDA government or UPA government, they invariably remain wary of the support from the Opposition and fail to get desired results of a political process. In case there are Parliamentary representatives of all parties in the committee, there will be no apprehension of opposition from any political opinion”, Tarigami contended. He revealed that during his meetings with the Central leaders, he had brought it home to the Centre that any more complacency on the Kashmir conflict could have disastrous consequences. He claimed that both, Dr Singh and Mrs Ganndhi, listened to him with rapt attention and gave him indications of a positive reaction.
Tarigami said that the trust deficit between New Delhi and Srinagar had widened to catastrophic proportions as nobody from the UPA government had taken any bold and substantive initiative to address the aspirations of the Kashmiris, particularly the younger generation. He admitted that the turbulence was not all about employment but pointed out that the unemployment depression was also a major contributory factor to the unrest in Valley. He said that nearly 600,000 unemployed youth had been counted in the state in recent past but the Government had committed to provide jobs to just 100,000 youth in the next five years.
With thousands of graduates and post graduates pouring in from colleges and universities every year, he asserted, the size of unemployed would simply remain intact. “There’s neither a public sector nor a private sector here”, Tarigami said and emphasized that the state government in coordination with the central government must create avenues and opportunities, directly as well as indirectly, to save the educationally and economically backward people in the state from total depression and frustration. He sought to make it repeatedly clear that there were also strong political aspirations, including Azadi, in different sections of the population which needed to be addressed in an all-inclusive dialogue process.
Tarigami held the Centre responsible for perpetuating and widening the trust deficit between New Delhi and Srinagar. He pointed out that NC’s autonomy resolution, passed by J&K Legislature, had been treated with contempt by one government and another government had been sleeping over the recommendations of five Working Groups constituted by no less a person than Prime Minister of India as part of his round-table initiative on Jammu & Kashmir. He said that nobody in the Centre had taken serious his own suggestion of offering safe passage to the Kashmiri youth, who had crossed the LoC but had not practiced violence. He urged the state government to remove the bar of disqualification from the youth who had once acted as militants but had later reformed themselves and had also been released by different courts of law.
CPI(M) leader also demanded amendment to J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act for the militancy had ebbed to an all-time low. He said that there was a formidable demand to completely withdraw AFSPA but a beginning could well be made with certain amendments in the law. “Kashmir situation has become a huge industry of vested interest”, he said with implicit reference to men in armed forces, political establishment, civil society institutions and non-state actors and separatist politicians making fortunes in the conflict ever since 1990.
END
‘Inaction on working groups recommendations has discredited Delhi in Srinagar’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Jul 25: State Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and third-time MLA from Kulgam, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, has stressed on the need of engaging the young rebels of Kashmir valley in a credible process of dialogue. According to the proposal he claims to have submitted to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the UPA Chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Government of India must constitute a committee of different political parties’ Members of Parliament and authorize it to talk to all shades of opinion including the Kashmiri youngsters involved in demonstrations, stone pelting and clashes with Police and paramilitary forces.
Addressing a news conference here after holding a series of meetings with the Central leadership---including Prime Minister, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram---Tarigami expressed serious concern over the current phase of turmoil in Kashmir. He said that Government of India had demonstrated considerable complacency and ignored the dissent in Valley, particularly so after the Assembly elections of mass participation in 2008. He said it was unfortunate that both, state as well as the central government, had lost the faith and confidence shown by people in the governmental system.
Tarigami said that there was need to urgently engage the “disillusioned and alienated” younger generation of the Kashmiris in a credible talks process . He proposed Government of India to immediately constitute a committee of the MPs from all political parties for this purpose. He asserted that a dialogue process conducted by the Parliamentarians’ panel was expected to achieve results better than a process conducted by government officials or political leaders of a particular party or coalition.
“Be that an NDA government or UPA government, they invariably remain wary of the support from the Opposition and fail to get desired results of a political process. In case there are Parliamentary representatives of all parties in the committee, there will be no apprehension of opposition from any political opinion”, Tarigami contended. He revealed that during his meetings with the Central leaders, he had brought it home to the Centre that any more complacency on the Kashmir conflict could have disastrous consequences. He claimed that both, Dr Singh and Mrs Ganndhi, listened to him with rapt attention and gave him indications of a positive reaction.
Tarigami said that the trust deficit between New Delhi and Srinagar had widened to catastrophic proportions as nobody from the UPA government had taken any bold and substantive initiative to address the aspirations of the Kashmiris, particularly the younger generation. He admitted that the turbulence was not all about employment but pointed out that the unemployment depression was also a major contributory factor to the unrest in Valley. He said that nearly 600,000 unemployed youth had been counted in the state in recent past but the Government had committed to provide jobs to just 100,000 youth in the next five years.
With thousands of graduates and post graduates pouring in from colleges and universities every year, he asserted, the size of unemployed would simply remain intact. “There’s neither a public sector nor a private sector here”, Tarigami said and emphasized that the state government in coordination with the central government must create avenues and opportunities, directly as well as indirectly, to save the educationally and economically backward people in the state from total depression and frustration. He sought to make it repeatedly clear that there were also strong political aspirations, including Azadi, in different sections of the population which needed to be addressed in an all-inclusive dialogue process.
Tarigami held the Centre responsible for perpetuating and widening the trust deficit between New Delhi and Srinagar. He pointed out that NC’s autonomy resolution, passed by J&K Legislature, had been treated with contempt by one government and another government had been sleeping over the recommendations of five Working Groups constituted by no less a person than Prime Minister of India as part of his round-table initiative on Jammu & Kashmir. He said that nobody in the Centre had taken serious his own suggestion of offering safe passage to the Kashmiri youth, who had crossed the LoC but had not practiced violence. He urged the state government to remove the bar of disqualification from the youth who had once acted as militants but had later reformed themselves and had also been released by different courts of law.
CPI(M) leader also demanded amendment to J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act for the militancy had ebbed to an all-time low. He said that there was a formidable demand to completely withdraw AFSPA but a beginning could well be made with certain amendments in the law. “Kashmir situation has become a huge industry of vested interest”, he said with implicit reference to men in armed forces, political establishment, civil society institutions and non-state actors and separatist politicians making fortunes in the conflict ever since 1990.
END
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