Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference on February 4 sought to play wait-and-watch game
regarding the highly publicised second endeavour of Deputy Chairman of Planning
Commission K C Pant to resolve the Kashmir issue through a dialogue with the
separatists.
"What is still in the air should not even ordinarily engage one's mind… We will wait
and see how things shape up," Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said.
Hinting that the 25-party separatist amalgam would harden its stand, Bhat said, "Let
there be no miscalculations about it that the Hurriyat stand is rooted in principles
and principles do not change like a chameleon changes colours."
Hurriyat was adamant not to meet Pant during his Mission Kashmir-1, but the
conglomerate met with the Kashmir committee led by former Union Minister Ram
Jethmalani.
Ram Jethmalani's Kashmir committee is a different proposition. It represents the
urge of the people of India to resolve the dispute in the interests of peace and
prosperity, Bhat said, explaining why the Hurriyat chose to shun Pant and met the
Kashmir committee.
Government's envoys see a dispute through a blinkered vision, where they do not take
the principles into consideration. If the Kashmir dispute is to be resolved, the
principles have to be accepted, he added.
Bhat said unless the centre recognised Pakistan as a basic party to the Kashmir
dispute, a permanent resolution would elude the problem.
"You cannot ignore Pakistan… Kashmir dispute has a historical one and Pakistan is a
party to it. Permanent peace will continue to elude the region if it is not involved
in the process of finding a long-lasting resolution to the issue," he said.
Asked whether greater autonomy to Kashmir was a possible solution to the Kashmir
imbroglio, Bhat said, "No, it never has been and it never will be.
"You cannot quote a single instance where the slogan of autonomy has been raised at
the people's level. Yes, it has been raised at organisational level by national
conference and we cannot deny them the right to express themselves," he said adding
that the Hurriyat Conference wanted a permanent resolution to the Kashmir dispute.
Bhat said the interim and internal arrangements had never worked and the problem
continued to linger despite several accords between Delhi and those who ruled in
Srinagar.
What happened to Indira-Abdullah accord… It never worked, he added.
On the suspension of senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq's passport by the
Centre, Bhat said, "This is a part of the game we are engaged in. We have been going
to prisons…some of us may be travelling abroad and if we are stopped, it does not
mean it will deter us and compel us to change our stand."
Asked whether Hurriyat was planning to open any offices abroad, he said there was no
such proposal before the amalgam for consideration.
PTI
