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Kashmir : Sonia Gandhi calls for push to peace process

	March 31, 2008

United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has called for a push to the peace process in Kashmir. She said this while dedicating a sprawling Tulip Garden in Srinagar on March 29 during a brief visit.



Earlier known as Siraj Bagh, the Tulip Garden has now been named after former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. The garden is a dream project of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and attracted a large crowd last year.



Recalling her family’s association with Kashmir, Sonia Gandhi said: “Kashmir used to be a regular holiday destination for Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.” According to her, “the atmosphere in the Valley is more peaceful than it used to be.” She hoped that the situation would improve and development activity pick up.



She was accompanied by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Water Resource Minister Saifuddin Soz and the former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.



The Chief Minister said his aim was to elongate the tourist season in Kashmir that normally begins in May. “In March-end and April there used to be no major attraction for the tourists. Now, the tulip garden, which surpasses the famed Mughal Gardens in expanse, will start attracting the tourists much ahead of the normal season,” he said.





New Govt.in Pakistan s to solve Kashmir problem : Zardari



Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday, March 28, that the new government in Pakistan intended to solve the Kashmir problem and “not just shadow-box” on it.



“We have always said dialogue is a political tool that we have to use. We believe in dialogue under any condition and all conditions,” Zardari said after a meeting with People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti at his home in the Pakistan capital.



Emphasising that he wanted progress, Zardari said, “we do not want confidence-building measures, we want action.”



“If boys in Kashmir are to be given pens instead of guns, if they are given jobs, if they are allowed to meet their relatives in Pakistan, if we allow our Kashmiris to meet their Kashmiri brothers across the border, I think it will go a long way,” Zardari said.



The PPP co-chairman, who rarely accompanies his visitors out, emerged to escort Ms. Mufti to her car after their 30-minute meeting, and both jointly spoke to journalists waiting outside.



His remarks appeared aimed at correcting an earlier impression he had given that India and Pakistan could “agree to disagree” on Kashmir while normalising relations between themselves, include opening out for more trade.



“We are totally involved with Kashmir, and we intend to solve the Kashmir problem and not just shadow-box on it,” Zardari said.



Describing himself as a “junior partner” in the new ruling set-up, Zardari said he had pledged to “my sister” that he would take the Kashmir policy to Parliament with a view to taking it forward



Mehbooba Mufti, who visited the Pakistan capital to attend a conference on regional stability, urged the new leadership to take forward the peace process and not put it on the “backburner” as the progress made in the last few years would be lost. She said there was peace on the border, and the roads had been opened across the Line of Control.





Gillani trumpets Pak’s old stand



In his first policy statement, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on March 29 trumpeted Islamabad’s longstanding policy on the Kashmir issue saying “sacrifices” of Kashmiri people will not go waste and their “aspirations” will be taken on board while resolving the vexed issue.



Gillani who secured a unanimous vote of confidence in the National Assembly, said eliminating terrorism would be his governemnt’s “first priority”, but offered to hold dialogue with militants who give up arms.



“On this occasion, I want to assure our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that their sacrifices will not go waste,” he said while pledging to continue peace talks with India.



“We will take forward the process to settle the Kashmir issue, but confidence-building measures (CBMs) will be effective only when the issue is perceived as being resolved according to the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” the Prime Minister said.



Observers say, Gillani’s comments were in sharp contrast to Zardari’s recent remarks expressing his readiness to set aside the Kashmir issue to focus on other aspects for improving relations with India.





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Menon, Pranab to visit Pak next month





India’s Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will travel to Pakistan next month and this will be followed by a crucial visit to Islamabad by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.



According to media reports on Sunday, March 30, while Menon will be reviewing the fourth round of the Indo-Pak Composite Dialogue process, Mukherjee will be discussing with his Pakistani counterpart the roadmap for the fifth round of talks and identify its broad contours.



However, New Delhi has reasons to be perturbed over the latest vibes emanating from Pakistan, particularly because these are indicative of a hard line Pakistani position on the issue India is most sensitive about, Pakistan’s support to terrorism in India.



Even as Gillani was taking the oath as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Army Chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, went to address JCOs and NCOs at forward locations on the Line of Control (LoC), and re-affirmed renewed army support to the Kashmir cause. Political support to the Kashmir cause is understandable, but what does “ military support” mean? This is the question being asked by observers.



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Azad, Mufti congratulate Pak PM



Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Chief Miniser Mufti Mohammad Sayeed have congratulated Gillani on his taking over as new Prime Minister of Pakistan. Welcoming the installation of an elected Prime Minister in Pakistan, Azad hoped that the return of democracy in the neighbouring country would usher an atmosphere of peace and amity in the region. In a statement, the Chief Minister described Gillani’s oath taking as a positive development for the growth of democracy across the border.



Addressing a public rally at Pulwama in South Kashmir, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed hoped that the new Pakistan government would ardently pursue the peace process with India to permanently end the six-decades of hostilities, violence and economic deprivation in the region.





Autonomy row: Farooq Abdullah rejects Advani’s remarks



National Conference patron and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has reacted angrily to senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s observation that he (Dr. Abdullah) surrendered on the autonomy demand to continue in the National Democratic Alliance Government.



Addresssing a Press conference, specially called at his residence on Saturday, March 29, he admitted that the BJP had rejected the autonomy proposal initially but both former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Advani assured him to look into it when he decided to withdraw support.



Both had come to his residence in 2002 to offer their condolences after the death of his mother and gave their assurance, he said and added that former Minister K.C. Pant was appointed convener and asked to examine the autonomy proposal.



An upset Abdullah said it was unexpected for a man aspiring to become the country’s Prime Minister to make such false claims. He said Advani has deliberately made these extreme claims to suit his party’s agenda of “ek vidhan, ek nishan and ek pradhan (one constitution, one flag and one Head of State).”



“I will rather spend my time in jail than surrender the state’s autonomy,” he said.



Advani’s autobiographical comments on Kashmir policies pursued by the NDA government have stirred up a real hornets’ nest in the ever politically surcharged atmosphere of the valley and the NC’s principal rival, the PDP, has gone on an offensive to exploit the issue. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has called for an explanation from the NC and said Advani’s comments were a proof of its greed for power. She has accused Farooq Abdullah, who is again spearheading his party’s campaign after letting his son Omar Abdullah take the responsibility for some time, of befooling the masses in the name of autonomy while scuttling it in New Delhi to remain in power.





Tibetans protest outside UN Office in Srinagar



Dozens of Tibetan exiles living in Srinagar took out a peaceful protest on Wednesday, March 26 in support of Tibetans uprising in their homeland against the Chinese rule and against the use of violence against them.



The protesters shouted slogans outside the United Nations Office in Srinagar against the Chinese crackdown on the their countrymen in Tibet and demanded an investigation by international agency like the United Nations into, what they alleged, the Chinese brutal use of force to quell the violence.



“Our people are being killed there and our culture destroyed. And we don’t really know what’s happening there. How many people have been killed, how many injured? China should be asked to let the world know what’s happening in Tibet,” protester Mustinko Sonhu said.



This is the first time Tibetans have held a public demonstration in the Kashmir Valley supporting their cause in Tibet. Most of the Tibetans, anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 living in the valley, are traders and an overwhelming majority of them are Muslims.