The National Conference (NC) asked New Delhi on Monday “to reframe its policy for a meaningful and genuine outreach to people of J&K”.
“It’s time New Delhi accepts the realities in Jammu and Kashmir. Unless sufferings of the people of J&K are recognized, nothing is going to change on the ground. Unless New Delhi reframes its policy for meaningful and genuine reach out to the people of J&K, there cannot be any redemption in the situation,” NC general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said in Srinagar.
Terming Kashmir problem “a chronic issue that needs to be addressed”, Mr. Sagar said, “Top-down orders and diktats are being issued every now and then. The ground reality in Kashmir presents a dismal picture of New Delhi’s reading of the prevailing situation,” he said. Mr. Sagar was arrested and jailed for around 10 months in 2019.
He accused the ruling dispensation of “making J&K a simmering cauldron of discontent”.
“Uncertainty and political vacuum and the government’s lopsided and dimwitted policies are stark in Kashmir. Issues in Kashmir are a result of complex historical grievances, alienation of youth, and unrelenting failure of New Delhi to address the wishes and aspirations of the people,” the former Minister said.
He said the situation unfolding in J&K was only confirming the wave of apprehensions people had. “Increased targeted killings, unemployment, return of bunkers, increasing foot prints of security forces, widespread unaccountability, administrative inertia, development deficit, casualties of security forces, and sinking economy and trade in Jammu and Kashmir are the living examples of ruling dispensation missteps,” he said.
