New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani on Tuesday slammed the Congress-led UPA government for it?s capitulation in Kashmir.
?The situation in the country is a cause of concern on many counts. In Jammu & Kashmir, it is indeed alarming. There is no government worth the name in J&K. It has completely collapsed, ceding the ground to secessionists,? Advani said at BJP National Workshop for Spokespersons and Media Cell Conveners.
?However, the mess in Kashmir is not the making of only the government in Srinagar. In New Delhi, the UPA government is totally clueless and spineless. Each passing day strengthens our apprehension that the UPA government is about to capitulate before Pakistan-supported secessionists.?
Advani said there is talk of a ?political solution? to the Kashmir issue; but instead of giving a ?fitting reply? to the secessionists, the Government has been ?demonizing? the security forces.
?There is continuing talk of diluting the AFSPA [Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act], and withdrawal of the forces! This is nothing but a surrender before Islamabad?s strategy of breaking India?s post-1947 unity. This is what the military rulers of Pakistan have been dreaming of ever since their defeat in Bangladesh?s War of Liberation in 1971,? the senior BJP leader said.
?It is a shameful irony that if one Congress Prime Minister was responsible for India?s historic victory in that war, another Congress set up is working towards India?s surrender to Pakistan?s proxy war on India in Kashmir.?
Commenting on granting ?maximum autonomy? in the Valley, Advani said it will take the state back to its pre-1953 status.
?There is talk of granting ?maximum autonomy? to Kashmir. Decoded, it means giving J&K its pre-1953 status. Far from repealing Article 370 [which grants special status to Kashmi], the UPA government looks all set to repeal years and decades of our collective gains in Kashmir, all because of its lack of will, vision, commitment and competence,? Advani said.
?All of us know that the Union government has extended many of its powers over Jammu & Kashmir since 1953. This has happened primarily because of the courageous struggle waged by my party, as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and more specifically because of Dr.Syama Prasad Mookerji?s martyrdom.?
The BJP leader said that reversal of Kashmir?s integration can?t be allowed in the name of autonomy.
?I would like to remind the UPA government that when the J&K legislative assembly adopted the so-called ?autonomy resolution? in June 2000, the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government rejected it outright.?
Advani also recollected his press statement given at that time.
?I had told the media on that occasion: ?Its acceptance will set the clock back and reverse the natural process of harmonising the aspirations of the people of the state with the integrity of the nation. If the government were to accept it, it would encourage trends that will not be conducive to national unity.??
He further said: ?We are all in favour of giving greater powers to all states as the concept of federalism warrants. But in the name of autonomy we cannot allow the process of Kashmir?s integration to be reversed.?
?Therefore, I would like to warn the UPA government that if they decide to bow before the secessionists? designs in J&K, the country will not pardon them,? Advani added.
The 1953 status of Kashmir refers to the arrangement before that year when the state had its own Prime Minister and Sader-e-Riyasat, and the Central Government had control only over defence, communication and currency.
On August 9, 1953 Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, grandfather of present chief minister Omar Abdullah and father of union minister Farooq Abdullah, was deposed of the “prime ministership” of Jammu and Kashmir and arrested in connection with Kashmir conspiracy case.
Sheikh Abdullah was detained under the state’s Prevention Detention Act by the erstwhile yuvraj (in his capacity as the Sadar-i-Riyasat aka governor of the state) and charged along with others for conspiring to overthrow the duly constituted state government and facilitate its annexation to Pakistan.
Sheikh Abdullah was in jail till January 1958 and he was rearrested after his release the same year in April.
In 1962, the case was closed down.
He again became the Chief Minister of the state following the 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord and remained in the top slot till his death on Sept 8, 1982.