Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can be achieved. We have to autonomy restored in Jammu Kashmir, says Farooq Abdullah.
He said i think our stand will always be the same. There is no change in the stand, and the stand is very clear.
We are part of India but we have to have the autonomy restored in J&K.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can be achieved.
That is the only way some form of peace and honor will return to the people of this state.
Secondly, we also stand for the final settlement of the J&K with Pakistan.
We believe no peace can achieved in the state or in India without the final settlement of this vexed issue between the two nations.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can be achieved.
The both nations have to realize that people of J&K are vital in any settlement that will take place.
Not all will agree to the final settlement but majority view should take into the account.
That will at least diffuse the tension between the two nuclear nations.
When Parvez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan, and the Prime Minister in India was Vajpayee and later Manmohan Singh.
They had arrived at a solution. Unfortunately, Musharraf went into trouble with the judiciary in Pakistan and the discussion broken.
Now new discussion has to start. We have a BJP government in the centre, which has a big majority, and with Modi heading it they must start this process again.
That process can only start when the small pebbles that are in the way are first tackled, not at the Prime Minister’s level but at the level of the Track-II diplomacy so that the discussion between the two prime ministers can take place.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can be achieved.
What was the need for the Mumbai attack? When the talks were going on very well, and some sort of a thing could have been achieved like Manmohan Singh’s meeting at Sharam-al-Sheikh in Egypt.
He got a lot of flak from the nation of what he had said there. So he took a back seat, not trying to trouble Congress to an extent that it will have a bad time. Leave that aside, what happened in Agra summit.
Really no body in the nation has known, what was really achieved there.
Why did the thing break up between Musharraf and Vajpayee? Nobody is talking about it.
The only thing we know from Musharraf at that time and [Khurshid] Kasauri, who was the Foreign Minister, is that they had nearly settled the situation and Musharraf had put that four point agenda before the government.
I do not know why it couldn’t take off.
No, I was a cabinet minister. This never brought to the cabinet, so none of us really know other than Manmohan Singh.
The only thing we heard is ‘yes we were near the settlement.’ But what was that settlement?
When my father started the discussion with field Marshall Ayub Khan, things were coming to a solution but [Jawaharlal] Nehru died.
And ever since that time, whenever we have come near a solution something happens, [Lal Bahadur] Shashtri died.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can be achieved.
Then again, when something would achieved Vajpayee lost the government; had Vajpayee remained probably there would have been some positive movement forward.
It took Congress sometime to again start the discussion.
But Congress they wasted the last ten years. Now Modi is here; I don’t know what will achieved now.
I did a lot and I did it to the best of my ability, but Delhi did not agree with me, Delhi didn’t trust me.
The trust factor was missing right from my father’s time. And that trust factor is still missing as far as Kashmiris are concerned.
And rather than buying Kashmiris, unless Delhi and Pakistan starts trusting Kashmiris, peace cannot achieved.
They should try and win the hearts of the people by listening to them, and to their problems.
How will Modi win the hearts of Kashmiris?
There is a tremendous amount of people in his party and the RSS who are totally against Muslims, who are changing the preamble of the constitution of India.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can achieved.
On the horizon it doesn’t look that the trust factor can retrieved, unless this party changes its stand.
Modi is not the prime minister for Hindus only, he is the prime minister for all.
Yes, it’s because Sheikh Sahib would not accept complete merger of this state with the Indian union.
He felt our union should be on the basis of autonomy and that was something they did not want.
Even today they want Article 370 to go, so that we loose our constitution, we loose our flag and we loose our right to exist.
Pakistan is never going to be possible for Kashmir.
They know it also. Let me tell you very frankly, they know it and I have spoken to some of their top people, they know it is not going to be theirs.
Nor do they think that what they hold is ever going to be part of India. That is going to be part of Pakistan.
When Mr.Vajpayee came back from his Lahore trip, I asked him if he discussed the Kashmir issue.
Kashmir issue settlement autonomy restored peace can achieved.
He said to me “I told them you keep your end, and we’ll keep ours.” But they were not ready to accept it at that stage.
Today, they are ready to accept that with one provision: That there should be autonomy here.
Pakistan will give the same autonomy there. if they want to settle with a nuclear power than you have to make concessions on both sides.
It has gone through great crisis. Thousands have died. It is not the same Kashmir. Where are the Pandits?
That was a different Kashmir. Today it is a different Kashmir with all the injuries in their hearts, in their minds, both Pandits and Muslims.
There are bitter memories, there are sad memories. I gave them a document of autonomy. That will stay forever. No one can destroy it.
