Sustained efforts needed to resolve J&K issue: Natwar
Welcoming the Centre's decision to send an all-party delegation to Kashmir, former Union Minister Natwar Singh today said that sustained efforts and monitoring on day-to-day basis were needed to resolve the problems in the state.
Welcoming the Centre's decision to send an all-party delegation to Kashmir, former Union Minister Natwar Singh today said that sustained efforts and monitoring on day-to-day basis were needed to resolve the problems in the state.
"The all-party delegation (which went to Kashmir recently) did some good efforts...it has to be sustained efforts and not episodic and must be monitored on daily basis," he told reporters here.
The prime concern of the Centre must be to bring peace and tranquillity in Kashmir, he said, adding that "the anger of people in Kashmir must be handled by providing a healing touch and minimising the friction."
81-year-old Singh, who previously held several key positions in the government, said "We (India) took the Kashmir issue to UN Council in 1947 accepting the chapter six which talks about disputes, but instead we should have adopted chapter seven of the Council which deals with aggression."
He said that Pakistan had succeeded in making Kashmir an international issue.
He urged the Centre to pressurise the US to discourage Pakistan from sponsoring terrorism aswell as expressing concern over China's "growing interest" in Kashmir and other areas of India.
He stressed that the Centre must pay more attention to neighbours, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as "influence" of China in these countries was "increasing" each day. "China's actions must be watched carefully," he said, adding, India should not be flexible on any tripartite talks involving separatists and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must take time from his schedule to visit Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Singh said.
He said that the only foreign policy followed by Pakistan was to keep the Kashmir issue alive. "Infiltration of terrorists is continuing from Pakistan and the situation in that country is also fluid," he said.
Singh, whose latest book 'My China Diary' and 'Yours sincerely' had hit the stands, said that no government in Pakistan or India could accept the Line of Control as the permanent border between the two nations.
He said "in practical terms the Kashmir issue will continue."
On the controversies surrounding the ensuing Commonwealth Games (CWG), he said that it had belittled the country's image and hoped that athletes could overcome it by winning some medals.
"Something went wrong somewhere," he said. He said that growing naxalism was a serious matter. "It is a socio-economic problem and not just law and order issue," he added.
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