Congress to hold a conclave on Kashmir
The senior leaders of the Congress party are involved in frantic efforts to sign up various political parties for a grand meeting on Kashmir in the month of June. Some newspaper reports suggest that Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister, is meeting politicians, mostly within the Congress, to evolve a consensus for the meeting.
Singh had a detailed meeting of the party leaders on Kashmir in which the participants showed concern over the prevalent situation in Kashmir. Ambika Soni was part of the meeting besides many others. Reports said other opposition parties are also slated to get into the discussions within the party first.
Interestingly, there is a division over whether BJP should be invited to the conclave. Yeshwant Sinha, a BJP leader who is somehow engaged in Kashmir says BJP should be part of the meeting. But the Left opposes the idea. CPI (M) general secretary has been quoted saying: “The situation now (in Kashmir) is, either you talk or there will be nobody left to talk.”
CPI (M) believes that the BJP messed Kashmir up and now is seeking “a fig leaf of a backdoor entry to gain some respectability”. However, Sinha says the meeting will have lot of civil society and all parties must be there.
JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is a key player in the conclave or the Yeshwant Sinha initiative, has said Kashmir has gone out of hand and the government is unable to control it, Indian Express reported.
“The situation in the valley has become very serious and gone out of hand in the last three years. Bringing peace there now is very challenging. It is in the grip of militancy which had not been seen in the last 15 years. The government is unable to control it,” Yadav has said in a statement.
KV Correspondent
