 "Rajnath Singh")
The government on Wednesday announced an all-party meeting on Friday in New Delhi to discuss the situation in Kashmir. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha, said the Union government, along with Mehbooba Mufti-led Jammu and Kashmir government, would prepare ground for a visit by an all-party delegation to the Kashmir Valley to speak with sections of the population, including the moderate elements.
The Rajya Sabha also passed a unanimous resolution, which said the House "conveys its deep sense of anguish and concern over the loss of lives and critical injuries caused by the deteriorating situation." It termed it "imperative" that "urgent steps are taken to restore order and peace for the alleviation of the sufferings of the people”. While it appealed to the people of the state to work for early restoration of normalcy, the House resolved to "restore the confidence among the people in general and the youth in particular”.
In a response to criticism that prime minister Narendra Modi didn't utter a word on the situation in Kashmir in Parliament and eventually chose an event in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday to talk about the problem, the home minister said Modi would attend Friday's all-party meeting.
The discussion in the Rajya Sabha lasted over six hours, with 29 members speaking on the issue. Kashmir has been under curfew over the past 33 days after protests broke out in the wake of the death in a gun battle with government forces of 22-year-old militant leader Burhan Wani. In his speech, the home minister termed the incidents in Kashmir as Pakistan-sponsored. He said the only dialogue on Kashmir that was possible with Pakistan would be that on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
The claim, however, is contrary to Indian position since 2004. Kashmir has formed part of the bilateral composite dialogue and even the revived comprehensive dialogue after the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarat to Islamabad in December, 2015.
The Home Minister said the union government has asked security forces to exercise "maximum restraint" before resorting to the use of non-lethal weapons, including shooting pellets. He said he will write to state chief ministers to ensure that Kashmiri students studying in different parts of India are not targeted.
The Home Minister said 43 Kashmiris and two security personnel have lost their lives since the protests started in early July and over a 1,000 security forces and civilians injured. He said 51 people have suffered eye injuries because of pellet guns. The Home Minister said it was "unthinkable" that Kashmir would be handed over to the Indian Army, as being spread on social media.
Initiating the discussion in the morning, Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad criticized the PM not only for his belated statement on Kashmir but also for not taking part in any of the four discussion on the issue in Parliament during the monsoon session.
On Tuesday, Modi at an event in Madhya Pradesh to mark the anniversary of the Quit India Movement had invoked former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenets of 'insaniyat (humanity), jamhooriyat (democracy) and Kashmriyat to indicate his government's willingness to start a dialogue with the people of the Valley. But Azad said such statements only suited Vajpayee. "They sound weird when mouthed by someone who does not believe in them," Azad, a former CM of Jammu and Kashmir, said.
In an emotional speech, Nazir Ahmed Laway of PDP said it would have been better if an all-party delegation should have visited AIIMS to meet the children injured during the Kashmir violence admitted there. He said people of Jammu and Kashmir are seen as "enemy" and Kashmiri students from the Valley targeted in other parts of the country. Mir Mohammad Fayaz of PDP said people in Kashmir have asked why Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, was hanged while those on death sentence from other states given clemency.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said MPs who want an all-party delegation to visit the Valley, should have ensured implementation of the recommendations of an earlier such deputation in 2010.
