PANAJI Stressing that the Kashmir conundrum is not an easy issue to resolve, Goa Chief Minister and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday advocated a long-term policy to tackle the issue.
Speaking at the 126th birth anniversary celebration of Babasaheb Ambedkar here, Mr. Parrikar also said that there was a lot of pressure on him when he was the Defence Minister.
"It is not easy to resolve the Kashmir issue. There is a need for a long term policy to resolve the Kashmir issue," Mr. Parrikar said.
The former Defence Minister also said that New Delhi wasn't a place he was accustomed to.
"Delhi is not my place. It is not the place I am accustomed to. There was a lot of pressure on me," Mr. Parrikar said.
Taking his argument on Kashmir issue further, he said that discussions on sensitive issues, especially in the media, can be a spoiler, vis a vis implementation of objectives.
"And I feel, there are somethings where discussions should be minimal, but things need to be made to happen. Discussions can be a spoiler," Mr. Parrikar said, while broaching the vexed Kashmir issue.
Open discussions, he felt, sometimes, bring to the fore multiple opinions, which can prove to be a hindrance in decision-making.
"If you want it to happen, do not discuss it too much in the news. When there is a discussion, one person says one thing, while someone else says something else," Mr. Parrikar said.
‘Shivaji my Guru’
Speaking about stalwarts like Babasaheb Ambedkar and others, he said that Shivaji Maharaj was his political guru, but cautioned people that merely worshipping icons alone is not enough and it was important to inculcate some of their values in life.
"If you want to know my guru, then I will point to Shivaji Maharaj. I imbibe his qualities only as much as I can. But that does not mean that I can be 100% Shivaji. I have to learn from his qualities. There is no point merely worshipping," remarked Mr. Parrikar and went on to add, “It is important to imbibe, at least some of the qualities, of Ambedkar”.
"We have to think on the same lines as Babasaheb. If every person in society, even adopts one of his qualities, then our society will 100% march forward, I guarantee this," he said.
"Babadaheb's philosophy, the qualities that he imbibed, we have to study them. We cannot imbibe everything. If you imbibe everything, you will become Babasaheb yourself," he remarked.
