NEW DELHI: Veteran Kashmir Congress I leader Ghulam Rasool Kar, who is a member of the all-party standing committee on Kashmir, has accused Kashmir affairs minister George Fernandez of not “taking the committee members into confidence” and sharply criticized the National Front government’s policy regarding India’s border state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a letter to VP Singh and released to press here, Ghulam Rasool Kar, a former state Congress I committee (PCC-I) President, has urged Premier Singh to call a meeting of all major political parties under his chairmanship to evolve concrete steps to start a “genuine and positive” political process in the state.
He said the policy of “administrative repression” followed by state administration backed by the central government could appear to temporarily achieve some results.
But it had the danger of ultimately losing Kashmir.
Among other steps, Kar has suggestions include the central and state governments making an appeal to the people who have crossed) over to Pakistan for training to return and surrender. He said these youths should then be given amnesty.
He has also suggested that militants operating within the state should also be urged to surrender and amnesty extended to them, if they abjured the path of violence.
Kar also called for immediate release of intellectuals, lawyers, doctors and others, who, he said, had been detained by state administration in “sheer desperation.”
In his letter Kar has said that Kashmir today required persons of caliber and perception to manage the affairs. He said the present governor Jagmohan had become an irritant in the situation and should be replaced.
Kar has also urged for immediate lifting of the ban on the media and allowing it to play a positive role in the situation there. He has also demanded that the center give the exact figures of people killed during the anti-militant operations in the last few months.
The Congress I leader has urged that people of the state be given a “breather” so as to allow them to get involved in economic activities.
The former PCC-I President said “the surrender to BJP (A Hindu fundamentalist party) on issues like negotiating the release of vice chancellor of Kashmir University and general manager of HMT had seriously impaired the image of the new government. He has charged that the Kashmir affairs minister despite a request from him and other members of committee had not trusted them and instead sought the opinion of BJP.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 18, 1990
