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Is US using the Kashmir issue to try and get a permanent foothold in South Asia? Post your views

New Delhi: In a sharp break from a long-held Indian position, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has suggested that South African leader Nelson Mandela could act as a facilitator between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir question, which he said was the "core" issue.

"One man who has proved beyond doubt, a good man, is Nelson Mandela. A man who fought for his country and got freedom for his country. A friend of India, a friend of Pakistan, a friend of free world," he told Karan Thapar in the "Big Question" programme for 'Doordarshan' favouring his role as a facilitator.

Former Prime Minister I K Gujral and Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Natwar Singh, who also participated in the programme, however, completely disagreed with Abdullah.

They said that there was no question of any third party mediation, a stand consistently taken by India.

They also maintained that the Kashmir was not the core issue and that there were many other important matters that needed to be sorted out between India and Pakistan.

While Abdullah was of the view that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was not clear as to what it wanted on Kashmir, Gujral termed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's hand of friendship to Pakistan as a "melodramatic" step and Singh said the government has been "inconsistent" and the peace initiative was a "peculiar diplomatic exercise".

Attacking Vajpayee and his deputy L K Advani for saying that a solution to the Kashmir issue needed compromises and could involve give and take on the part of India and Pakistan, Singh said their statements were against the spirit of the 1994 Parliament resolution that Kashmir was an integral part of India.

PTI