Jammu: If given a “free hand” to run his government, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed will succeed in resolving the long pending Kashmir issue, Janata Dal(U) president Sharad Yadav today said.
Yadav, who met his former Janata Dal colleague Sayeed over lunch in Jammu yesterday, said that the PDP leader was a “nationalist who has lived for this country and would die for this country”.
“I know Mufti Mohammed Sayeed personally for very long, he is a capable person and I am confident that if given a free hand to work, he would find a way out of this (Kashmir) problem,” the JD(U) leader told PTI.
Yadav flew to Jammu from New Delhi yesterday on the invitation of Sayeed, whose party PDP is in alliance with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, but said that he did not discuss politics during the meeting.
The meeting between the two leaders, who were both ministers in the Janata Dal government in 1989, came amid a unification move by Janata Parivar splinter groups. “It was a long overdue meeting, so I decided that before Parliament session resumes, I must pay him a visit. We have been together in the Union cabinet and I know him very well. It was just an apolitical meeting where we discussed everything else except politics,” Yadav said.
Yadav said that the “democratic setup of India” was a platform that provides solution to every long standing problem and that Kashmir issue too could be resolved within the framework of the democratic process.
He said he was confident that the BJP-PDP coalition government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups.
He said that the successive governments have been dealing with the separatist organisations. “When I was a minister in the NDA government, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated dialogue process with political groups, including the Hurriyat conference in the spirit of Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhooriyat,” he said.
Yadav said that following the same principles the coalition government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups irrespective of their ideological views and predilections.
“The dialogue will seek to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of Jammu and Kashmir. This is all mentioned in the common Minimum programme of the present government in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
He said the country has successfully dealt with major challenges, including in Punjab, within the democratic framework and he was sure that “if Mufti gets his way he would also find a way out for Kashmir problem as well.”
“The country has seen worst in the past. The problem in North East, the problem in Punjab and many other problems that we have faced since our independence and all of these were resolved within the democratic framework and I am sure that if Mufti gets his way he would also find a way out for Kashmir problem as well,” Yadav said.
Earlier while taking to reporters, Yadav termed the political situation in Jammu and Kashmir complex and said that the situation continues to be same since 1947.
“However the degree of discontent varied from time to time and there are historical reasons for that. Attempts have been made in the past and by the successive governments and the present government to bring the people of the state into the mainstream,” he said.
