Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday that the government will not yield to stone-pelting mobs in Kashmir, instead it will deal firmly with them. He also said that those who plead their cause are playing petty politics.
The statement came at a time when leaders from mainstream Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir are meeting key leaders in both ruling and Opposition camps in New Delhi to beseech them to put an end to what they say is excessive use of force against protesters in the Valley and initiate dialogue with all stakeholders to find a political solution to the Kashmir imbroglio.
But Mr Jaitley chose to give them a piece of the government’s mind when he said that there will be no compromise on the security and integrity of the country and no compromise with people who indulge in violence.
To reiterate the government’s resolve not to budge on the issue, he said, “They (stone-pelters) are not satyagrahis but aggressors. If a police post manned by 10 police personal is attacked by 2,000 stone-pelters, it is an attack, but some people do not realise it.”
Elaborating, he said, “The Modi government has three clear priorities vis-a-vis Kashmir issue. First is that there will be no compromise with the security of this nation and those who threaten with violence. Secondly, the focus is on the development of the state, which the Congress and the National Conference refused to address for seven years. And third, as BJP has a stronghold in Jammu, Nirmal Singh should think about gathering resources from the Centre to contribute to the state’s development”. Mr Singh represents J&K’s Udhampur constituency in Lok Sabha and is a minister of state at the PMO.
Mr Jaitley, who was addressing a public meeting in Samba district held in memory of Premnath Dogra, the founder of Jan Sangh in J&K, reiterated that people “who are defending rioting and stone-pelting in the Kashmir Valley have nothing on their mind except petty politics”. He said, “Some people outside talk of human rights in Kashmir. Have they ever visited the Valley and seen those security men who have been injured while performing their duty ”
He blamed Pakistan for creating trouble in Kashmir and said that after getting defeated in three wars with India, the neighbouring country started a proxy war against it in 1990s. “In 2008 and 2010, they gave the new face of stone-pelting to their proxy war and that is what is happening in the Valley this time also,” he said.
Mr Jaitley, however, acknowledged that the situation in the Valley is “serious” and said that the government would deal it in an appropriate way. “Now this time, a serious situation has emerged in which Pakistan, separatists and religious forces have joined hands and they are attacking the integrity of India,” he said and asked the people of the state to stand with the country in the “struggle against the separatists” so that “this new phase of Pakistani strategy of war is defeated this time as well”.
Taking a dig at the Opposition parties, he said that school-going children are being given stones in their bags instead of books to target police and security forces and that people “with limited vision” can only see the arrested stone-pelters but not thousands of injured police and CRPF personnel in hospitals.
