Jammu: Set to study the ground situation in
Jammu and Kashmir, the all-party delegation led by Home
Minister P Chidambaram arrived here on Tuesday, even as BJP, SP and
JKNPP decided to boycott the team.
The 36-member delegation, which arrived here
from Srinagar, will meet over 30 delegations representing
political parties, social, religious, trade and other
associations, official sources said.
The BJP said it will boycott the all-party meeting here in
protest against the failure to invite various nationalist
parties for putting forth their viewpoints on Jammu and
Kashmir.
"We have decided to boycott the all-party meeting here in
protest against the failure to invite nationalist parties,"
Jammu and Kashmir BJP President Shamsher Singh Manhas said.
BJP spokesman Balbir Ram said 16 organisations have not
been invited for the meeting. "These parties represent the
aspirations and view points of Jammu and have been
deliberately kept aside," he said.
Some of these organisations are VHP, RSS, Bajrang Dal and
Panun Kashmir, he said.
He also said members of the all-party leaders delegation
can go and meet separatist leaders at their homes despite
their refusal to meet, but they chose to ignore and sideline
nationalist parties here.
"This is a clear discrimination with Jammu and we are not
going to tolerate it," he said.
Demanding resignation of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,
the state unit of BJP strongly opposed any move to revoke the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act and demanded jobs on
compassionate grounds for the kin of those killed in the
ongoing unrest in the Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers party (JKNPP) has
also decided not to meet the delegation.
"We have decided to boycott the delegation as no terms and
conditions are attached. The delegation has no constitutional
authority to take cognisance of the facts and situation that
prevails today in J-K and particularly in the Kashmir Valley,"
JKNPP chairman Bhim Singh told reporters here.
Samajwadi Party has also decided to keep away from meeting
the delegation. "We are not meeting the delegation," state SP
chief Sheikh Abdul Reham said.
Meanwhile, multi-tier security has been deployed in and
around the venue of the meeting.
"We have sounded an alert in Jammu region. Police has
been asked to keep a round the clock monitoring in sensitive
areas of the region to foil any design of the militants,"
Jammu Inspector General of Police Ashok Gupta.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 16:45