SYED ALI SAFVI
SRINAGAR, June 9: A day after separatists turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer of talks, former chief minister and union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, today said that solution of Kashmir problem lies only in negotiations.
Suggesting separatists to be part of much-talked-about dialogue process, Azad said that problems can never be resolved through strikes, slogans and protests.
During his two-day visit to Kashmir, Dr Singh had renewed the offer of talks to the separatists, but pleaded them to shun violence.
"We wish to carry forward the process of dialogue and we are ready to hold talks with the representative of any group which shuns violence and terror," he had said in his SKUAST convocation address at SKICC on Monday.
Talking to media persons on the sidelines of his visit to Super Speciality Hospital at Shireen Bagh here, the former J&K chief minister said that dialogue process was stopped by separatist and not by New Delhi.
He advised separatists to stop issuing statements in press and come across the table and put forth their grievances so that they are redressed.
He said that strikes, slogans and protest will not yield anything.
“Before 1947, when I was not even borne, protests were held in hundreds and thousands of times, but to no avail,” he said. “The protests will not solve any problem. If we really want permanent peace to return to J&K then we sit at table.”
Maintaining that the central government wants to resolve the problems of the people of J&K state, Azad said that the problems, however, can not be resolved through emotions.
“We must sit together at the table and try to find out the possible solutions, which are in the interest of the state in the long run,” he said.
He said that 25 years ago when he was minister of state for home in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet, militancy was at its peak in Mizoran and Assam.
“At that time we said the same thing as we are saying now. Shunning the path of violence is imperative for paving the way for negotiations,” he said. “Initially, about 300 militants pledged to abstain from violence, and later thousands of militants laid down their arms. Today, Mizoram is one of the violence-free states of India.”
The union minister said that peace and gun can not go together.
Referring to Hurriyat Conference (M), Azad said that the dialogue processes was not stopped by the centre, but it was stopped by the Hurriyat Conference.
“We have told them (Hurriyat leaders) in the past that if they want a formal invitation for talks from the government, we are ready to do that,” he said.
Asked about Hurriyat’s assertion that human rights violation and talks can not go together, Azad said that the central government will extend every possible support to identify the loopholes in the governance and law and order.
Terming the PM’s visit as successful, he said that Dr Singh has shown keen interest in the development of the state on all fronts.
Azad claimed that the PM had made various promises in his previous Kashmir visits, and there is not a single promise that he has not fulfilled.
He said that the J&K state was the only state which has got generous funding from the centre, particularly in the last six years.
Lauding the work of chief minister, Omar Abdullah, he said that Omar has efficiently utilized the funds on different development projects for which he deserves to be appreciated.
Azad was accompanied by minister for medical education, RS Chib, and minister of state for health, Javaid Ahmad Dar.
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