Srinagar: Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday
voiced confidence that the Centre would find solution to all
the problems of Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue with every
section of society but his colleague Farooq Abdullah slammed
those "sitting in Delhi" for not having any clear perspective
on these talks.
Chidambaram's assessment and the combative remarks by
Abdullah which put the Centre in an embarassing situation came
ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to J and K
later this month.
Addressing a rally at the Congress headquarters here,
Chidambaram said, "I want to assure you that the Prime
Minister is open to dialogue...we mean what we say...with
every section. We will absorb all suggestions and try to come
to widely acceptable solutions to all underlying problems
within a short period of time."
Abdullah in his address at a conference on social and
infrastructure development of militancy-hit state said talks
with Pakistan or Kashmiris could bear fruits only if there was
a clear perspective and thinking on behalf of those sitting in
New Delhi.
Referring to Round Table Conferences organised earlier in
2005 and 2007, the Union minister said, "the recommendations
of some of the committees formed after the talks are gathering
dust on the shelves of government department."
"They believe in dialogue. They don't know what the hell
their dialogue is," the former CM added. He cautioned that the
Centre would "lose its face in the state, if it begins talks
with all shades of opinion" without any proper planning.
His son and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah favoured early
engagement of people of all shades of opinion, including
separatists, for addressing the internal aspect of Kashmir
issue.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 22:30