STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Saif-ud-din Soz on Saturday asked all the political parties in the country to pay heed to suggestions made by P Chidambaram who has favoured greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.
Soz, who headed Congress’ Jammu and Kashmir unit in 2014 Assembly election, met Chidambaram today and congratulated him for projecting the situation in Kashmir “correctly”.
Chidambaram, former Union Finance and Home Minister, had recently proposed a radical solution to the situation in Kashmir by advocating restoring the “grand bargain” under which Kashmir had acceded to India by granting a large degree of autonomy, warning that otherwise the country will have to pay a “heavy price”.
“I think their approach is wrong. We have ignored the grand bargain under which Kashmir acceded to India. I think we broke faith, we broke promises and as a result we have paid a heavy price,” he had said.
He had said the best solution, according to him, was that New Delhi should give an assurance to the people of Kashmir that the “grand bargain” promised during the time of Kashmir’s accession “will be honoured fully”.
Soz said it was the most correct way to approach the Kashmir issue. “It’s a political problem and needs a political solution. Nothing can be done through force,” he said and advised BJP as well as PDP to pay heed to the suggestions made by Chidambaram.
78-year-old Soz, who had been part of National Conference before being expelled for voting against party line that brought Atal Bihari Vajpayee government down, said autonomy of the state had been diluted.
“It was wrong on the part of Delhi to have diluted the autonomy,” Soz, who later joined Congress in 2003, said. He termed the statement of Chidambaram as an opportunity for opening up dialogue process in the state.
