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| PDP wants Modi to re-launch Vajpayee policy | | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 6: Besides an economic package, the ruling PDP wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-launch former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Kashmir policy from Srinagar.
As all eyes are set on the public rally which Modi would address at Srinagar's cricket stadium on Saturday, the PDP "is desperately waiting for the announcement of a political package," party sources told Early Times on Friday.
They said party's top brass is lobbying hard with the Modi Government, urging it to make some announcement related to J&K's political front which includes offer of talks to separatists besides reducing the number of troops in State's civilian areas.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's close aide Naeem Akhtar Andrabi has already stated that Modi's visit "cannot be described in economic terms alone."
"The PM's visit can't be described in economic terms alone. It is right that Kashmir needs economic impetus but it is equally true that political engagement especially with youth is essential," Andrabi said in an interview to a Srinagar-based newspaper. "We don't know what PM is going to say when he lands here. But if we recall the 2003 Vajpayee's visit to Kashmir, nobody could prejudge how he would behave before he actually delivered."
Andrabi said the need is to unite to create a new discourse like the one in 2003 when Vajpayee rose to the level of statesman from the stadium wherefrom Modi is scheduled to address public meeting.
He said it was true that not much headway has been made on resumption of Indo-Pak talks. "But Mufti has been repeatedly asserting that India will have to engage Pakistan in order to create right atmosphere. In 2003 we saw how the initiative was taken that changed entire chemistry between India and Pakistan. That time Kashmir had taken a lead in conveying to New Delhi that we need a political space, free of violence. That is what Mufti Sayeed wants people to replicate when Modi arrives in Kashmir."
Sources said Mufti has already apprised the PMO and Union Home Ministry, asking them to make the rally a more political event than just the economic one.
"There are hectic deliberations going on within the PDP wherein the subtlety of PM's visit is discussed. We see it more through the political prism than just the financial package. We are all very hopeful that critics and opposition would eat the humble pie if a major political initiative is initiated," a senior PDP leader said. |
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