Expressing grave concern over the political situation in Kashmir, BJP on Monday said lack of policy and vision on part of NC and Congress was responsible for it and wondered why these parties were not strongly opposing the separatists.
"BJP views the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which is critical and deeply sensitive, with grave concern. It is an outcome of an absolute lack of policy and vision at the political level both at the Centre and state," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Referring to a statement on the issue by Army Chief V K Singh, Prasad said the gains made by the army in the state had been frittered away by the "ham-handed approach" of the civil administration.
"The Government of India needs to introspect. BJP wants to know what is the policy of the government for Kashmir. How long will the polity of experimentation and knee-jerk reactions continue?" Prasad asked. The main opposition accused the Omar Abdullah government of "utterly lacking" in political will to fight separatists.
"The Congress-National Conference Government has been an abysmal failure and has clearly played into the hands of the separatists and mischievous elements," Prasad said. BJP also referred to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's request to PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti to attend the all-party meeting convened by Omar Abdullah and and her refusal.
"It is disturbing to note that the moral authority of the Prime Minister has been so badly eroded and tarnished that his invitation for talks and normalisation is being openly spurned," Prasad said.
The Rajya Sabha MP alleged that separatists were involved in creating law and order problems in the state and the funds for causing trouble were coming from Pakistan, but Congress, NC and PDP were not speaking strongly against it.
"The situation in Kashmir is symptomatic of a total sense of atrophy, cluttered thinking and drift evident in the UPA government at the Centre," he said, adding that the separatists were holding the state to ransom.
"The writ of the state administration appears to have shrunk to an extent that it is seen as cornered, helpless and totally bereft of both political and administrative will to even attempt to retrieve the situation," Prasad said. Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Prasad said stern action against the separatists and stone-pelters, and not "flamboyance", were needed to deal with the problem.
"The way he has governed, he has shown his father (former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah) to be a better administrator," Prasad said. He argued that certain elements were trying to throw back Kashmir to the earlier days of anarchy.
BJP claimed that when NDA was in power at the Centre and PDP ruled in the state, "India-baiters and mischievous elements" were not allowed to have an upper hand. PTI
