Recent Kashmir visit by MPs must lead to tangible CBMs: CPI-M
CPI-M today said the recent Kashmir visit by parliamentarians must lead to "some tangible confidence building measures" like release of protestors against whom there are no serious charges and action against security personnel charged with committing excesses.
CPI-M today said the recent Kashmir visit by parliamentarians must lead to "some tangible confidence building measures" like release of protestors against whom there are no serious charges and action against security personnel charged with committing excesses.
At the least, the Centre "must initiate action against those members of the security forces against whom charges of excesses have been proved by the CBI or other agencies" and a review of cases of political prisoners undertaken so that those without substantive charges could be released.
Defending the meeting of the MPs and separatist leaders, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said "this unprecedented out of the box step" was aimed at conveying to the Kashmiri people the sincerity of the Indian political leadership in reaching out to all sections and shades of opinion in order to restore normalcy.
In an editorial in the party organ 'People's Democracy', he said many of the Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to leave the Valley 21 years ago, still did not have permanent rook over their heads.
"All the promises and packages announced by the central and the state governments have remained largely unfulfilled. The agonies and the sufferings of the Kashmiri Pandits and other displaced people need to be urgently addressed," Yechury said.
He said the harmonious cohabitation of the pandits and the Muslims in the Kashmir valley for centuries has been one of the strongest foundational pillars of the syncretic civilisational ethos that defines India.
He said several measures suggested by the Left parties to restore normalcy like selective withdrawal of special powers to armed forces and stopping firing on protestors had not been implemented.
This had added to the "growing trust deficit and governance deficit amongst the people", he said demanding that these measures must be urgently addressed in order to "reverse the growing trend of alienation among the people in Kashmir.