Student protests dangerous phenomena: Dulat

Srinagar/May, 4: Terming the prevailing unrest and student protests in Kashmir a “dangerous phenomenon”, former RAW chief A S Dulat Thursday said that Kashmir issue needs to be seen out of the security paradigm. Meanwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party has blamed Dulat for demeaning talks on Kashmir in past.
Dulat, who also served as advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Kashmir affairs from 2001-2004, suggested that all political parties in Kashmir and both state and central governments have a role to play to normalise the situation.
“Student protests are a new phenomena and a dangerous one. Students taking to streets without any control is scary,” Dulat said as quoted by local news gathering agency KNS.
“All the political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, be it Hurriyat, mainstream political parties, state and central governments have a role to bring the situation to normal,” he said.
Dulat, who has authored the book Kashmir- The Vajpayee Years, said that Kashmir issue has to be seen out of the security paradigm.
“Kashmir is a political issue and has to be taken on that paradigm, and then the situation will pave way for solving it,” he said.
Dulat said that the mainstream political parties in the Valley should come and sit together instead of blaming each other.
“Why do not mainstream political parties get together and sit to find a solution to the prevailing situation in the Valley. If all the mainstream leaders sit together, then I think there will be a way out of the present situation,” he said.
“Kashmiri politicians have to solve it by getting and sitting together. All political leaders have responsibility to resolve the issue instead of blaming one another. Why are the Kashmiri politicians not forthcoming?” he said.
“If Kashmiri politicians sit together, then New Delhi will think over it,” he added.
“When Pakistan can get Mirwaiz, Geelani and Yasin Malik together, why can’t Dr Farooq (Abdullah) and other mainstream leaders get together to resolve the present situation,” he said
Asked how he views the BJP-led government’s policy on Kashmir, Dulat said the BJP-led NDA during Atal Behari Vajpayee was different as it was in coalition then.
“Today’s BJP is different having total power. Even, now they are in power in Jammu and Kashmir and have a role to play. Then our relation with neighbour, Pakistan, was good even after Kargil war. It is very bad today,” he said.
Meanwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement issued here in the Friday afternoon said unfortunately, people like Dulat, who are today, projecting themselves as champions of dialogue and reconciliation on Kashmir are in fact responsible for sabotaging the confidence building process, one way or the other.
“By naming in his book ‘Kashmir – The Vajpayee Years’ the Kashmiri leaders who came forward for talks, at some point in time, to help resolve the tangled Kashmir issue, Dulat has tried to project them not as facilitators but as collaborators, thus impeding the very resolution process instead of helping it,” PDP Chief Spokesperson, Dr Mehboob Beg said in a statement issued here Friday afternoon.
Beg said the irony is that Dulat has named and projected in his book leaders from, both the separatist and mainstream camps, in a way, as if they were acting like agents of New Delhi and not as genuine political voices from Kashmir, who wanted the Kashmir issue to be resolved through a sustained political and reconciliation process. “If the likes of Dulat are blaming the local politicians for the mess in Kashmir, Dulat and his ilk in Delhi are equally to be blamed for adding to the muddle for their own vested interests,” he said.
Beg said ironically, the former Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, who has today become a votary of reconciliation in Kashmir, is known for his dictatorial and hawkish approach during 2010 unrest. “If the Government of India would have taken some concrete confidence building measures after 2010 unrest in Kashmir, the situation would have not reached such an impasse,” he said and added that it is the time that the politicians and policy makers shun their personal and political expediencies and reach out to the people in Jammu and Kashmir to find a way out of the present morass.
“What Kashmir and Kashmiris want today is not rhetorical and hypothetical statements, but tangible confidence measures to address their genuine concerns and find a way out of the present imbroglio,” he said and added that the onus lies on all to help facilitate peaceful resolution of the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir through a sustained and result-oriented dialogue process both on internal and external fronts.