Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on November 28 rejected talks with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, who had held preliminary talks with the ousted Farooq Abdullah government on autonomy and suggested an early resumption of dialogue between the Centre and the elected representatives of the state.

Sayeed brushed aside the autonomy plan saying, "Restricting the talks to restoration of autonomy would be like putting the cart before the horse."

"Government of India and not Arun Jaitley will talk to us," Sayeed said winding up the debate on a Motion of Thanks to the Governor's address in the Legislative Council.

He said going back to the pre-1953 status for the state as envisaged in the autonomy resolution, which was passed by the previous state Assembly but summarily rejected by the Centre, was neither the plank of the Abdullah government in 1980 nor did it find mention in the Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah accord of 1975.

The dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir has to be on a "broader sphere and not on party nominee level", the Chief Minister said, urging the Centre for giving it an early push with the representatives elected to the Assembly in the "fairest possible transparent" manner.

Referring to the release of political prisoners, which has come under attack from the Centre, he said his government had the mandate of the people to deliver and it was not irresponsible.

This, he said, was not done to "appease" any section of the people but because he firmly believed in the "battle of ideas" in a Democratic set-up.

PTI