Give Army full power in Kashmir, says Paswan

New Delhi: Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who as part of an all-party delegation to Kashmir in 2010 had called for dialogue to help the situation there, on Thursday said that the atmosphere was not conducive to “talks now” and the Army should be given full powers. Mr Paswan also rubbished Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s contention that the NDA resolution to fight the 2019 polls under Narendra Modi’s leadership had been added by him.

Mr Thackerey has claimed that when NDA allies met in Delhi and passed a resolution to fight 2019 elections together, Mr Paswan added a line saying that the 2019 elections would be fought under the leadership of Mr Modi. “I questioned there why are you in a hurry for 2019 elections? There are still two years left. Why are you in a hurry to fight elections? People have given you mandate to work for them; do that first, don’t just think about elections and your party,” he said.

Mr Paswan rebutted his claim saying: “Why did the Shiv Sena speak out after a month? They could have raised their objections then. I had told them that you can’t make one comment inside and one outside.”

On Kashmir, the minister said that there was a need for “tit for tat” response now and the Army should be given all powers. “Things are not the same in Kashmir anymore. I agree that talks are not the solution now”.

“On the one hand there are terrorists and on the other there are stone pelters. Children are getting hurt,” the minister said.

Interestingly, Mr Paswan had been part of an all-party delegation to Kashmir in 2010 and during that time he had called on separatist leaders Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Omar Farooque and had called for dialogue with the separatists and all other sections of the population there.