Hurriyat (M) to wait and watch Modi’s Kashmir policy

Hurriyat (M) to wait and watch Modi’s Kashmir policy

Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday said the amalgam would keep a keen eye on the Kashmir policy to be adopted by the new government in New Delhi.

“BJP government will soon assume power in New Delhi, and Hurriyat will be watching with keen interest what policy it will have vis-à-vis Kashmir issue. We hope that the new government will adopt a realistic approach over Kashmir,” Mirwaiz said while addressing a seminar organised here by Hurriyat (M) in connection with the ongoing ‘Martyrs’ Week’.

Mirwaiz, however, reiterated that tripartite dialogue was the only way forward on Kashmir, and that the government of India “should take a truthful and realistic stand.

“There is going to be a change in government in India. And at this juncture, we want to reiterate that the Indian government will have to adopt a realistic approach over Kashmir, involving a serious effort to start a tripartite dialogue between India, Pakistan, and Kashmir. Any such approach will have our support and that of Pakistan,” he said.

“The new government must be truthful to the people of India by admitting that Kashmir is not an internal matter but an international dispute; that it is not a Hindu-India versus Kashmir dispute, but a political problem,” he added.

To BJP’s promise of development to India, Mirwaiz said Kashmir issue is the “biggest dent” in the Indian economy the resolution of which could boost development.

“This time, BJP didn’t talk of Hindutva, of uniform civil code, of mosques and temples, or abolition of Article 370, but the party talked of development. And we can prove statistically that Kashmir is the biggest dent in India’s economy, consuming 25 to 26 billion dollars of its defence budget. Resolve Kashmir and you can think of developing India,” he said.

However, warning BJP and its allied rightwing groups against intending to use power over Kashmiris, Mirwaiz said, “You must check history to know that Kashmiris have never been afraid of power or military might, and we will not be afraid of it in future also. We have faced the worst, and we will continue to fight all modes of oppression directed at us. Our stand on Kashmir will not change.”

Reiterating that elections are a “non-issue in Kashmir”, Mirwaiz said Kashmiris have amply demonstrated their dissociation with the electoral process.

“I recently said the same thing to Panchayat members who had come to meet me. I told them that Assembly, elections, Panchayat elections, etc, are meaningless in a place like Kashmir where people are denied their human or political rights. Elections, Assembly etc have no impact on Kashmir,” he said.

“The statement by ex-chief of the Indian army V K Singh has substantiated our argument that governments in Kashmir are made by the support of army,” he added.

The seminar, titled ‘Saneha Hawal: Tareekh-e-Kashmir Ka Khneen Baab’, was organised to pay tributes to the victims of Hawal massacre of 1990, which Mirwaiz described as a “massacre worse than Jallianwalla Bagh.”

Complete shutdown shall be observed on May 21 to commemorate those brutally killed on the day, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, leader of Hurriyat (M) Hilal War said the identity of the “invisible hands that killed people in Hawal years ago on this day will soon be disclosed.”