A handful of Opposition parties have entered into a discussion on Kashmir and are working toward sending a delegation there led either by Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi or Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
So far, four Opposition parties — the Congress, the CPI, the CPI(M) and Janatal Dal United — have agreed to join the initiative as they feel “the BJP government [in the Centre] have taken a wrong approach toward the people of Kashmir.”
“It will be a delegation led by people who don’t agree with the BJP government’s policies toward Kashmir,” KC Tyagi, general secretary of Janata Dal United, told The Hindu.
At first, the parties had slotted August 9 as the day of visiting Kashmir, but since Quit India Movement will be celebrated nationwide on the same day, they have decided to pick a new date.
“The need of the hour is to win the confidence of the people. We recently asked the government in Parliament to start a political process, a dialogue, if not with the separatists, at least with the mainstream political parties,” said senior CPI leader D Raja, who will be part of the delegation.
G.A. Mir, Congress chief in Jammu and Kashmir, told The Hindu the party had asked the ruling BJP to lead an all-party delegation to Kashmir but are yet to hear back from them.
‘Appreciative idea’
“It is an appreciative idea. Since the step is not taken by the government, we thought let there be an Opposition party delegation going to Kashmir,” said Mr. Mir.
He said alienation between the Kashmiri people and India was growing to “disastrous extremes” and the State and central governments had given up on taking certain confidence-building measures.
“The national media is not highlighting the crisis, the government has turned a blind eye, and even Indian civil society is not playing any active role to engage with the Kashmiri people. In such a situation, I think the Opposition parties have taken a great step to go there [Kashmir],” Mr. Mir said.
The Valley has been on the boil since July 8, when the government’s Special Operation Group killed Burhan Wani, a militant commander associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen. Since then, 55 people have died and several hundreds were injured in police firing. The situation continues to be grim.
