Cong slams govt for no policy on Kashmir

The Congress on Monday slammed the government for having no coherent policy except for engaging in mere rhetoric in handling the current volatile situation in the Kashmir valley and regretted that statements of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were aggravating the unrest.

“We want to ask the Prime Minister: When he talks about insaniyat (humanity), what is the definition of insaniyat as understood by the Prime Minister of India? When the Prime Minister talks about Kashmiriyat, what does he mean? Is there any policy behind these words,” asked Congress spokesman and former Union minister Manish Tewari at the AICC press briefing in the party headquarters.

He also flayed Jaitley for provoking the Kashmiri youths by calling them as ‘aggressors.’

He said, “The essence of the Finance Minister’s statement was that there is no political problem in Kashmir.

According to him, it was only a problem regarding development,” as he had contended that the unrest was due to the Congress and the National Conference not bringing about any development

in the state. “The PM talks about engaging in dialogue, but with whom is he going to engage in dialogue? The fact remains that even after 45 days, the situation in Kashmir has not improved at all,” Tewari said.

He wondered why the PM was also undecided on whether he wants to send an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, something which the Congress has been demanding since the second half of the monsoon Session of Parliament.

Tewari also took a dig at the Modi government’s stand on nationalism. “Those people who hide behind pseudo-nationalism are insecure about their past and clueless about the future.”