BJP slams Soz, Azad’s remarks Cong leader warns Lashkar launches online magazine, against a hardline says 2018 will be stand on militancy tough for agencies
Jaitley says dealing with militants is a law and order situation, Ravi Shankar asks Rahul if he will pull up his party leaders
NEWDELHI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched a no-holds-barred attack on the Congress over controversial remarks on Kashmir by Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz.
Azad, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, triggered a political row on Thursday by claiming that army operations in Kashmir had left more civilians dead than terrorists. Soz suggested in a soon-to-be-released book that former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf was right in saying that, given a chance, Kashmiris would prefer to be independent.
On Friday, Union minister Arun Jaitley retorted by saying that to deal with a killer was not just a “muscular policy.” It’s a law and order issue that cannot wait for a political solution.
“This is not ‘muscular’. It is the rule of law,” the minister wrote in a Facebook post titled ‘Who is threatening human rights?’ “A fidayeen is willing to die,” he wrote. “He is also willing to kill. Should he be dealt with by offering Satyagraha before him?”
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi whether he will take action against Azad and Soz for their remarks.
Azad’s comments have drawn support from terror group Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) and will make Pakistan happy, Prasad said. The Congress’s commitment to the country has undergone a sea change since Rahul Gandhi took charge of the party in December, he said.
He described Azad’s comments as “shameful and irresponsible” and the Congress’s pathological hatred of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP had become a “corner stone” of its politics in which national interest at times takes a back seat.
Union minister Jitendra Singh said Congress leaders’ remarks will lead to questions whether the party and its leaders can be trusted to stake a claim for ruling the country.
“What we witness in Kashmir today is, in fact, a cumulative outcome of a series of blunders committed by the Congress leadership, beginning right from the infamous Nehruvian blunders,” Singh said.
The war of words between the BJP and the Congress came within days of the former pulling out of the ruling alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir following a “worsening security situation”, a development which brought the state under governor’s rule.
Jaitley drew a parallel between Jehadis and Maoists, and questioned human rights organizations which, he said, “have never spoken about the deprivation of the human rights of the innocent citizens who are victims of their violence.”
“They have never a tear to shed in the indiscriminate killing of the security personnel,” he wrote.
Protecting India’s sovereignty and the right to life of its citizens are paramount, and a terrorist who declines to surrender and refuses a ceasefire offer has to be dealt with as anyone taking the law into his own hands is dealt with, he said.
According to Jaitley, Maoistsponsored human rights organisations only espouse the cause of separatism and violence – be it Kashmir or Chhattisgarh. They, he claimed, have brought a bad name to the precious and valuable concept of human rights.
Jaitley said the ability of such organizations to coordinate with opinion makers in the western world and with global human rights organisations has to be recognised. These groups, he said, have also earned sympathy in the heart of Rahul Gandhi, who backed those who raised subversive slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Hyderabad.
Leaders of the so called federal front have forgotten the dangers these groups pose to India and Indian democracy, Jaitley said, adding that“political adventurists” in parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress “and the like only look for a political opportunity in these groups”. NEW DELHI: Congress leader Saifuddin Soz wants a “powerful dialogue” with “boys who wield guns”, not a hardline approach, in Kashmir.
In the thick of a controversy for his remarks on an “independent” Kashmir, Soz — who has authored a book, Kashmir: Glimpses of history and the story of struggle — said in an interview that the Centre should hold talks with militants through the Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella group of separatist organisations.
“If Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government could hold talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen, why can’t the Narendra Modi government do the same? We have to reach the minds of the boys with guns. The muscular approach will not work,’’ Soz added.
The Congress party has already distanced itself from Soz for advocating “independence.” On page 212 of his book, the author says, “(Former Pakistan president Pervez) Musharraf had explained that if Kashmiris were given a chance to exercise their free will, they would prefer to be independent. In fact, this assessment of Musharraf seems to be correct even today!” Soz, however, sought to douse the controversy and now says “independence is not possible.”
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union law minister, called Soz out as a “Pakistan proxy who has found his rightful place in the Congress party,” while another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Subramanian Swamy, asked Soz to “move to Pakistan.”
Cautioning against a hardline approach to Kashmir militancy, Soz said, “You can kill, you can keep killing, but that will not get you a solution.”
Advocating talks between New Delhi and Srinagar and between India and Pakistan, Soz said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to travel to Islamabad in 2007 for a “crucial meeting” with Musharraf. In the book, he writes, “In June 2007, when I was a minister in the Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had invited me for a discussion on Kashmir. I found him unusually optimistic on Kashmir’s solution. He shared with me that he would visit Islamabad next month to have a decisive dialogue with Musharraf...after two weeks, I followed the PM to his chamber after the meeting and enquired...he told me that it was Musharraf who requested him for postponement of the crucial meeting and he would fix the date soon. That was unfortunate as that time never came... It was unfortunate that Manmohan Singh could not fulfil his mission and his travel to Islamabad for the final and decisive meeting with Musharraf...” Asked why he thought the BJP broke up with its ally Mehbooba Mufti, Soz noted that the party did so in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. According to him, the BJP might start its election campaign for 2019 from Jammu.
The Congress leader’s book, which has generated a lot of heat, is due to be released early next week. NEWDELHI: Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-taiba (LET), responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has scaled up its propaganda in the Valley by launching its online magazine and stating that the year 2018 will be “tough for Indian army and other occupational forces in Kashmir”.
The first issue of Let’s Kashmir-specific online magazine “Wyeth” carried an interview of terror outfit’s spokesperson Dr Abdullah Ghaznawi and other propaganda material like a list of attacks in 2017 where its cadres were involved.
In the magazine, the terror outfit says that it was “helping the “common man’s struggle” in Kashmir.
To a question on the LET being a “proxy” of the Pakistan army, Ghaznawi says: “LET is the common man’s struggle. It represents true aspirations of J&K people .”
He goes on to state that “proxy” is an “obsolete” term when it comes to the Pakistan army and states that other countries with “less divine faith” and “high military numbers” use proxies, but the Pakistani army can deal with any issue which comes to them. He adds that Pakistan has “moral and legal” obligation to support the “struggle” in Kashmir, which is an “unfinished” agenda of partition.
On fringe terror groups (a possible reference to group led by former Hizbul commander Zakir Musa which has claimed affiliation with al Qaeda), he says: “We have been distributing literature based on Quran and Hadith to show these groups actually are misled (sic) people and helping the Indian cause.”
Reacting to Let’s claims, an army officer deployed in the Valley says: “Dealing with this kind of online propaganda and building a counter-narrative is necessary to bring normalcy in the Valley” .
Arun Chaudhary, a retired IPS officer who served as former Intelligence Bureau special director and dealt with Kashmir issue while in service, says: “LET has always been tech-savvy outfit. It is trying to rope more local boys into militancy and these prospective recruits are proficient in use of social media. Therefore, an online magazine is best way to reach out to them in the Valley.”
RAJESH AHUJA
OFFICIALS SAY DEALING WITH MILITANTS’ ONLINE PROPAGANDA, CREATING A COUNTERNARRATIVE IS NEEDED TO BRING NORMALCY IN VALLEY