Politics
Pakistan May Be Relishing This War Of Words Between Kashmiri Parties
Swarajya Staff
Jun 29, 2016, 02:54 PM | Updated 02:54 PM IST
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Terrorists, their handlers and many Pakistani politicians probably relish our acrimonious debate over Kashmir militancy.
Recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kashmir unit demanded that the Centre order the security forces to “attack and destroy” militant training camps across the border in Pakistan. Accusing the BJP of creating “war hysteria” in the state by “instigating” Pakistan, the legislators of the National Conference (NC) staged a walkout from the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Assembly on Tuesday.
A Business Standard report quoted BJP’s state unit spokesperson Virender Gupta as saying:
Instead of adopting a soft approach towards terrorists, the Centre and the state government should adopt a decisive and pro-active policy and formulate an action plan to flush out and eliminate all militants.
As per the report, he further added:
Enough is enough. The time has come when our forces should be asked to attack and destroy the militant training camps across the border.
Expressing his concern over many young, educated people in the state taking to militancy, Gupta was also quoted by an NDTV report as saying:
There is a general perception that Kashmiri youths are being groomed and motivated to join militant ranks by some of the school, college and university teachers and religious preachers. Therefore, it is essential that the state and central security agencies identify such elements and take action against them.
Members of the NC and the ruling BJP clashed in J&K Assembly over the security situation in the wake of the attack on a CRPF convoy. NC members later staged a walkout as their demand went unheeded.
NC member Devender Rana took on BJP, which shares power with the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, for demanding an “attack” on terrorist training camps in Pakistan.
A report in Greater Kashmir reported Rana as saying:
The bombing of Pakistan won’t affect Nagpur (RSS headquarters) but bullets in its reaction from Pakistan hit my people. I am accountable to the people of Balakote and other border areas, not you.
Rana’s comments did not go down well with the BJP, and the infuriated BJP legislators shouted him down.
BJP’s Ravinder Raina, who was supported by other party MLAs, was quoted as saying in the same report:
National Conference has adopted soft policy towards Pakistan which has led to present situation in J&K. BJP will not tolerate anything and will retaliate with double might, if Pakistan dared to create any disturbance in J&K and India.
The uproar in the House, emerging from a series of allegations and counter-allegations from the two parties, prompted the Speaker Kavinder Gupta to intervene.
Expressing his view that the BJP didn’t have a soft approach towards Pakistan, the Speaker, as per the Greater Kashmir report, said:
It is a matter of pride that central government led by BJP has no flexible approach towards the countries which breed terrorism.
Meanwhile, the NC also criticised the state government, which according to reports has ordered the CID of J&K police for surveillance of Friday sermons, profiling of the preachers and recording of their political views and affiliations, as reported by The Economic Times.
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