SRINAGAR: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday released a blog which touches upon the ‘Kasmir and terrorism’ and how a ‘new approach to terrorism will remain a key political issue’ in the valley. In this edition, the Union Minister has asked a fundamental question: ‘Why are national security and terrorism related issues being made into subject matters of electoral debate?’ He debates as to why ‘India’s opposition argues that elections have to be fought on the real issues and not on the issues of national security’.
Arun Jaitley said Article 370 was disastrously thought out as a constitutional connect between rest of the country and the State. Article 35A was surreptitiously introduced in 1954. It catered to a separatist psyche and legitimised discrimination. The NC-Congress relationship was a paradox. From total trust in Sheikh Sahab to his arrest in 1953, from his reinstallation in 1976 to the dismissal of the Farooq Government in 1984 and installing a Government headed by Ghulam Mohammad Shah were amongst the many pitfalls.
The 1957, 1962 and 1967 and even 1988 were rigged elections thereby leading to further alienation of the people. All warnings were ignored and the separatists virtually took-over the State in 1989-90 leading to a violent civil disobedience. Atrocities were practiced on the minorities, including the Kashmiri Pandits, the Sikhs and others and an ethnic cleansing of the minorities was undertaken.
He further wrote in his blog the UPA wasted its 10 years with a set of sham policies while the Jamaat-e-Islami and other fundamentalist organisations were busy transforming the liberal Islam of ‘Sufism’ in the Valley to a more fundamentalist form of ‘Wahhabism’. The NDA experimented supporting a regime of the regional mainstream party in the State. Obviously, the experiment did not succeed since the PDP could not come out of the clutches of the Jamaat-e-Islami agenda. Thereafter, Central Government, for the last few months, has sent a clear message that terrorism will not be acceptable in the valley.
He added Militants in large numbers are being liquidated by our security forces. Their modules are being cracked up. The rule of law is effectively being imposed. The activities of the separatists have been curtailed. Terrorism from across the border is attacked at the point of origin. Our historical view on Article 370 and Article 35A continues to guide our vision.
The issue of Jammu and Kashmir and militancy continues to remain the biggest challenge before India. It relates to our sovereignty, integrity and security. (PTK)
