The Kashmir issue has been going on for too long now, ever since India achieved independence in 1947 to till date. The blame for the division of Kashmir which is an integral part of India can comfortably be put on the Congress which was the only political party ruling the country for much of independent India’s history. Congress leaders have in the past too overcomplicated the Kashmir issue by trying to defend the activities of the separatists and Jihadi elements in the valley. Another Congress veteran Saifuddin Soz, ex-Union Minister in the UPA-I government is the newest entrant in the long list of leaders who have backed the stance of separate status for Kashmir. Saifuddin Soz who hails from Jammu and Kashmir was the Minister of Water Resources under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he was nominated to the Congress Working Committee. His son Salman Anees Soz is the national spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. Saifuddin Soz had at one point of time been one of the front runners for the post of Vice-President of India in 2007 and 2012. The claims of pro-separatist attitude of Saifuddin Soz have been made in his upcoming book “Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle”, which is going to be released next week.
In the book, the Congress leader claims that the former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had been right in making the assessment that given a choice Kashmiris would “prefer to be independent” if they are given a chance to “exercise their free will”. He goes on to say that the sentiment seems to be “correct even today”. This is shocking coming from a former Union Minister who has enjoyed the benefits of Indian citizenship and the perks given to ministers. He urges the central government of today led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to start dialogues with the Hurriyat conference.
In the book, he blames all the central governments which have been in power since 1953 for committing “blunders” leading further alienation of the Kashmiri population from mainstream India and Indians. Soz says the Indian government “should have realized much earlier that it was wrong for it to dilute the autonomy that was enshrined in Article 370 of the Constitution of India and the Delhi Agreement of 1952 between (Jawaharlal) Nehru and the Sheikh.” He goes on to add that, “Nehru had realized that India’s policy had gone wrong in Kashmir and it was the greatest blunder committed by the Government of India to have dismissed and arrested the Sheikh unconstitutionally. Nehru had regretted the action, but the Union of India itself hadn’t learnt the lesson as it repeated its mistake by incorporating a clause in the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 aimed at examining all the central laws promulgated in Jammu & Kashmir since 1953, but never showed its nerve to implement the same,”
He says that the centre today should show “a gesture of compassion for creating a situation of relief in the minds of Kashmiris”. The timing of the release of these excerpts from the book contradicts the claims made by Soz. The month long ceasefire before Eid, which the centre had implemented in the valley failed to get the warmth it needed from the Kashmiri population. BJP led by PM Modi has went out of their way to please and bring the Kashmiri population to the mainstream but have failed due to the Jihadi elements and separatist ideologies being preached in the valley. The increased attacks on civilians, army personnel and journalists from the valley when security forces were not operating at full capacity show how disruptive the terrorists are in reality. How much of a dialogue can be initiated when stones are pelted in reply, that is the burning question today and sadly Saifuddin Soz fails to answer that in the book.
It is not a big thing that the Congress which has passed on the Kashmir problem as a legacy to us Indians has these people in its ranks. No wonder that Congress in fact keeps and nurtures these kinds of people who take no time to point fingers at their own country, it is important to see what the Congress President Rahul Gandhi is going to do now. We want to see Rahul Gandhi and Congress in general give some reaction to these claims made by their senior leader in the book.