Senior BJP leader and former Minister Yashwant Sinha stressed the need for engaging in a dialogue for resolving the decades-old turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir as “non-violence is completely at a discount there”.
Quoting his experiences during a visit to J&K at the height of tensions after the killing of Burhan Wani, he said there was a strong constituency of peace and a possibility of engaging in a dialogue. The dialogue process should be conducted in two stages, with “our own people in the State” and then starting a dialogue with Pakistan.
Mr. Sinha was speaking on “Kashmir - Now and Way Forward” organised by Manthan here on Monday. He expressed sadness about the situation in J&K, claiming that it had been “the longest issue with us since our independence”. He touched upon the plight of the people there and their sentiment towards their treatment. People in J&K believed that the country was in a denial about the issue and feel betrayed and discriminated against.
Stressing the need to reach out to the people of J&, he lamented that people of at least four generations had been living under the shadow of security forces and “this will not be tolerated anywhere else in the country”. “Nobody wants violence. We all want to resolve the J&K issue,” he said. At the same time, he asserted that Pakistan should be held to the promise it made to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that it would not export terror and violence from its territory. “It is entirely our fault that people of J&K are alienated. It os our duty to see that this alienation subsides,” he said.
Supreme Court Judge Jusitce J. Chalameshwar, who introduced the audience to the doctrine of rule of law and the requirements for its practice, outlined the importance of separation of responsibilities in the creation of the law (parliament), investigating the violation of law (police and other agencies) and enforcement of law (judicial system) and emphasised the need for civil society to participate more actively in adherence to the rule of law in order to prevent lawlessness.
“The prescription of law is on a par with the rest of the world. But the question is how well the law is being implemented. It leaves a lot left to be desired,” he said.
