Former Union Minister and Senior Congress leader Saif-ud-din Soz on Sunday appealed all the pro-India political parties in Kashmir to take a joint stand on Kashmir.
In a statement issued today, he said: “I reiterate my plea that it is high time at this critical moment in Kashmir that the mainstream parties, (including NC, Congress, PDP, CPM, PDF, DNP) make their stand clear on the Kashmir question and tell the three stakeholders (among others) in clear terms as to what they should do under the present circumstances; the Hurriyat, the Govt. of India and the Govt. of Pakistan.
“The current critical situation urges it (the mainstream) to perform this duty.”
Soz said that he committed two wrongs – “one, when I described the Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh’s narrative around the visit of All Party Parliamentary Delegation to Kashmir as conducive to the Dialogue-Process and for sensitizing PM Modi’s mind on Kashmir.”
“The second time my calculation failed me was when I assessed that RSS/BJP had started responding to the unrest in Kashmir. This assessment was based on RSS/BJP senior functionary Ram Madhav’s statement that ‘even Moon could be offered to Kashmir within the constitution of India.”
Asking Kashmiris to realize “what is what?”, Soz said: “Ram Madhav, who is also BJP General Secretary, (Incharge J&K State), has revealed his mind fully before a senior journalist Karan Thappar (see video interview telecast by India-Today on September 10, 2016) that BJP’s position on the question of Autonomy was clear and there was no change in that.