New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said the people of Kashmir ought to stand with the government and not with the separatists in the fight against terrorism.
“I think it is absolutely essential for all of us …that in this battle, we need the Kashmiri people on our side. It’s a battle for sovereignty, it’s a battle against separatists and terrorists and the key is also held by the people,” he said.
“And therefore our approach has to be guided by the fact that those people are on our side, and not with the separatists,” he said while delivering the first Atal Bihari Vajpayee Memorial Lecture here.
He regretted that at a time when the country is dealing with troubles being fomented from across the border, some local groups have joined them and the worst sufferers are Kashmiri people themselves.
“How do we resolve the situation ? Governments have said that we are ready for the most logical option. We are willing to talk to people, we are willing to even interact and involve regional mainstream parties into it,” he said.
Jaitley also said that mainstream regional parties, which speak one language in Srinagar and another in Delhi, must have the courage to face the situation.
They need to create an alternative set of discourse in the Valley for separatists, he said adding “Unfortunately they duck that responsibility. And therefore this is a battle which India has to win and I have no doubt in mind, we will succeed in it at the end of the day because the politics of India has to send a clear message that separatism will never be accepted by India and its mainstream”.
He said that every policy and position that the government takes have to be guided by one of the yardsticks that “the people of Kashmir have to be gradually brought on this side and that will be the real”.
Jaitley said terrorism and insurgency are the major threats and the government was successful in eliminating or reducing them substantially in three parts of India — Punjab, north east and southern part of India.
“Two challenges still remain. First relates to terrorism emanating out from Kashmir and the root cause really is that Pakistan never reconcile to Jammu and Kashmir being part of India. They try conventional war and failed. They then resorted to insurgency,” he said.
The BJP leader alleged that past governments closed their eyes when with the help of foreign money, the movement from sufism to wahhabism was taking place in Kashmir and the consequences are eminent.
The second challenge of terror is Maoism, he said, adding there are ideological Maoists, weaponised Maoists and poor citizens and tribals who are misled.
Further he also said that poverty still remains a key challenge for the country.
“First challenge is that we must continue to grow and grow fast and the benefits of that growth must be translated and transferred to both, weaker section of society and as also to rural India, and that is perhaps the foremost challenge that Indian democracy has to face,” he added.
PTI