Political Correspondent
JAMMU: On 19th June, APHC-M Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and former Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, hailed BJP veteran and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and targetted PM Narendra Modi. Both accused PM Modi of deviating from the path Vajpayee had charted during his regime. They regretted that PM Modi was not interested in the resolution of the “Kashmir issue”. PM Vajpayee had, it bears recalling, reassured Pakistan, Kashmiri separatists, terrorists, protagonists of “Nizam-e-Mustafa”, self-rule, autonomy and “Azadi” that the Kashmir issue would be resolved within the parameters of “Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat” (Humanity, Kashmiri ethos whatever they mean and democracy – [Vajpayee and Nehru-style]).
Earlier, JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, National Conference Working President of National Conference Omar Abdullah, members of the Kashmiri civil society and so on had also tore into PM Modi, the BJP and the RSS and said what Umar Farooq and Pervez Musharraf said. They all praised Vajpayee line on Pakistan and Kashmir. Patron of Peoples Democratic Party and Chief Minister of J and K Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter and Party President Mehbooba Mufti have been commending Vajpayee since months now and repeatedly expressed the view that the PDP and the BJP under the leadership of PM Modi would resolve the Kashmir issue in the spirit of “Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat”. In fact, they endorsed and signed the PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance only after they ensured the inclusion in it of the Vajpayee doctrine.
The Agenda of Alliance, which is being looked down upon in Jammu and Ladakh for obvious reasons and which was made public on 1st March, 2015 after the formation of the PDP-BJP Coalition Government by Mufti Sayeed in the presence of his Deputy and BJP leader Nirmal Singh, inter-alia, said: “The Union Government has recently initiated several steps to normalise the relationship with Pakistan. The Coalition Government will seek to support and strengthen the approach and initiatives taken by the government to create a reconciliatory environment and build stakes for all in the peace and development within the sub-continent. The same will be pursued by taking confidence building measures such as, enhancing people to people contact on both sides of the LoC, encouraging civil society exchanges, taking travel, commerce, trade and business across the LoC to the next level and opening new routes across all three regions to enhancing connectivity. The earlier NDA government led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had initiated a dialogue process with all political groups, including the Hurriyat Conference, in the spirit of ‘Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat’. Following the same principles, the Coalition Government will facilitate and help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all internal stakeholders, which will include all political groups, irrespective of their ideological views and predilections. This dialogue will seek to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of J&K”.
The Agenda of Alliance, like Kashmiri leaders, both “mainstream” and separatist, clearly says that the issue of J and K is still alive and that all the “stakeholders”, including Pakistan, Hurriyat leaders and political groups operating in the Valley, will be taken on board both by the PDP-BJP Coalition Government and the Modi government at the centre.
And then why this hullabaloo! Why this criticism against PM Modi, the BJP and the RSS, who are on the same page the Kashmiri separatists, “mainstream” Kashmiri leaders are on! The Agenda of Alliance signed between the PDP and the BJP only reiterated what Pervez Musarraf, Umer Farooq, Yasin Malik, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti, to mention only a few, all through advocated. The PDP would not have forged an alliance with the BJP, had the BJP not accepted the Kashmiri standpoint on J and K.
It appears the critics of PM Modi have not studied the Agenda of Alliance. Had they put in a little effort or had they taken the trouble to have a cursory glance at the Agenda of Alliance, they would not have targetted PM Modi, the BJP, and even the RSS. They would do well to read the Agenda of Alliance before they say this or that about PM Modi, the BJP and the RSS. Indeed, the criticism against PM Modi, the BJP and the RSS is unjustifiable. If they have any doubt, they can approach BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav, one of the chief architects of the Agenda of Alliance, and seek clarification from him. They can also approach PDP leaders, particularly Haseeb Drabu who knows as much as Ram Madhav knows.
