Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that the UN resolutions on self determination in Kashmir have lost their relevance as they have been time-barred. The United Nations had passed the resolutions 50 years ago and a series of developments since then had made the resolution irrelevant, the Prime Minister said in an interview to the Jeddah-based ‘Malayalam News’ published on Tuesday. “Five decades ago India was willing to implement the UN resolutions, but Pakistan had at the time refused to withdraw from occupied Kashmir as the first step to implement the resolutions,” Vajpayee said.
“Pakistan's aggression against India in 1965 and 1971, support to terrorism in different parts of India, cross border violence against India and also the changes in the population profile of Jammu and Kashmir had further made the UN resolutions redundant,” he said. Vajpayee further said that it should be remembered that for the last 50 years, Kashmir has participated in local and general elections in India acknowledging its status as one of the state of the Indian Union.
Stating that India wants to live in cooperation with all neighbours, he said that to demonstrate this he had travelled to Lahore by bus but Pakistan responded with aggression in Kargil. “But still India is committed to resuming peace talks with Pakistan if Islamabad stops cross border terrorism and creates a congenial climate for dialogue,” he said.
Vajpayee said that India has declared ceasefire in Kashmir during Ramzan and was willing to talk to all parties and groups in Jammu and Kashmir, adding that New Delhi will make a draft for these talks and mull further steps considering the ground situation after the month of Ramzan. Saying that cross border terrorism has posed a threat to India's internal security and secular structure, he said New Delhi was trying to confront these through democratic tools and was confident to overcome the forces of militancy.
Vajpayee said that his government was committed to secularism and democracy as India's cultural ethos are rooted in the tradition of religious tolerance and secularism. On the entry of foreign publishers in India, he said his government would take a final decision only after carefully considering all the pros and cons of such a move.

There have been apprehensions expressed in various quarters on the impact of such a move, he said, adding that however, there are no restrictions for distribution or sale of foreign publications which are available on the web. Vajpayee said that Indian expatriates can participate in the elections through postal ballot, though the facility cannot be extended to those who have accepted other nationalities.
He said that India was proud of the 3.5 million expatriate Indians working in the Gulf who have earned recognition by virtue of their discipline, honesty and technical skills. “They have stood by their motherland in the hour of need and India would also render all assistance to the Gulf Indians in return,” he said. Bureau Report