Against the backdrop of Prashant Bhushan’s comments on referendum on the presence of army in Kashmir, BJP on Monday charged AAP and Congress with speaking in “synergy” on the issues related to the border state and toeing the line of Pakistan.
Insisting that AAP and Congress are “working in tandem”, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi on Monday said Mr. Bhushan’s statement is in the same vein as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks that India and Pakistan had almost reached an agreement on Kashmir when Pervez Musharraf was President.
“Prime Minister’s recent address that hinted at a solution to the Kashmir problem was probably an acceptance of Pakistan’s proposal of ‘open’ borders in Kashmir -- a Pak ploy to merge Kashmir with Pak’,” Ms. Lekhi said.
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“In the background of such a remark, the recent rhetoric of Bhushan on the Kashmir issue is reflective of a collusion that is taking place yet again between the two political parties,” she added.
Describing AAP’s decision to seek Congress support to form a government in Delhi as “political hypocrisy”, BJP said AAP and Congress have raked up this issue as Lok Sabha elections are round the corner. “They seem to have a hidden agenda in mind,” Ms. Lekhi said.
The right-wing party condemned Mr. Bhushan’s statement and underlined that there can be no compromise on the issue.
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Ms. Lekhi emphasised that the 1994 resolution of Parliament that Kashmir, including PoK, are an integral part of India.
Reacting to Mr. Bhushan’s statement that there should be referendum in Kashmir on whether the army should be removed from the Valley, she said “the security forces should decide on withdrawal of forces.”
Ms. Lekhi made the point that after the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban is shifting its base to Punjab in Pakistan and in such a scenario, whether army should stay in Kashmir or not cannot be decided by those “sitting on the fringes”.