For daily EARLY TIMES (http://www.earlytimes.in/) of October 29, 2009

Condition of ‘dismantling of terror infrastructure’ mellowed down to a friendly advice

Omar Govt upset as PM has no package shackage for J&K

An olive branch covered in thorns and thistles offered to ‘pro-peace’ Kashmiris

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

ANANTNAG, Oct 28: Conducting their umpteenth visit to the strife-torn Valley in the backdrop of a shutdown sponsored by Kashmiri separatists and militants, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Mrs Sonia Gandhi, today attended the grand finale of Qazigund-Baramulla train service but, much to the disappointment of Omar Abdullah’s coalition government in the state, they did not unfold any economic package for Jammu & Kashmir. Mellowing down his typical condition to resuming of composite dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad, Prime Minister yet again advised the Pakistani leadership to dismantle the “infrastructure of terrorism” in that country and also expressed his willingness to engage the Kashmiris in a dialogue process but made it clear that his government would talk to only those who were in favour of “peace and development” in the state.

Notwithstanding razzamatazz, that included a cultural programme by schoolchildren and waving of the Indian national flags by hundreds of Congress and National Conference (NC) activists, flagging off the train to Qazigund by Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson ended up as a lackluster show for an enthusiastic gathering of more than 8,000 people at Wanpoh, in outskirts of the south Kashmir district headquarters of Anantnag. Much to the disappointment of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, and his Council of Ministers, Dr Singh did not unfold any fresh economic and developmental package for the strife-torn state.

Prime Minister declared that his Government intended to engage the Kashmiris in a dialogue process but made it clear---again to the chagrin of his hosts---that the offer would remain restricted to only those “nourishing the aspirations of peace and development” in the state. PM’s lukewarm assertion came in sharp contrast to the tone and tenor of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s speech on the occasion. Almost explicitly demanding engagement of the separatist leaders in the UPA government’s fresh dialogue process, Omar had laid significant emphasis on his belief that Kashmir was essentially a “political problem” and it essentially required a “political solution”.

“Kashmir is not fundamentally an economic problem. It’s no matter of money and development. It was never one when militancy erupted 20 years ago. If we have to really come out of the quagmire of the gun culture, we need to get a political resolution of this crisis. It was, of late, highly reassuring when Prime Minister and Home Minister declared to resolve it politically”, Omar had said in his speech.

“I am aware of the disappointment afflicting the youth in Jammu & Kashmir. I make an appeal to them all to come forward and contribute to the state’s development. There is a lot of pessimism but I assure them that the situation is changing fast. This is my request to them that they should think how best they could subscribe to betterment of their future”, Prime Minister said and continued to address the Kashmiri youth: “This is my promise to you that the Central government would do its best to engage you in developmental works”.

“We are ready to engage all those in a dialogue process who nourish the aspirations of peace and development in this state. We realize the need to carry along all sections of the society for addressing socio-economic and political problems. We are also ready to talk to Pakistan on all issues but Islamabad shall have to gain control over terrorism. It will have to gain control over all those elements who are behind terrorism in India. Even if they are supposedly non-state actors, the state can not abdicate the responsibility of dismantling their hideouts and infrastructure”, Dr Singh said. He asked Islamabad to support New Delhi with “sincere intentions” in eliminating terror and building up an atmosphere of trust and friendship between the two neighbours.

In the last over two weeks, a number of the coalition leaders, state Ministers and senior government functionaries had created a media hype that Prime Minister Singh would not only unfold a fresh economic and developmental package but could also announce thousands of jobs for the J&K unemployed youth in different departments of the Central government, particularly in Railway. Many in Omar Abdullah’s government had been impatiently waiting for a major announcement as they believed that Prime Minister would hand over a number of the Centrally operated hydroelectric power projects to the state.

Even as Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, has maintained in some of his recent statements that the Centre would hold the fresh dialogue process with “all shades of political opinion” in J&K secretly, many in the ruling National Conference were expecting Prime Minister to publicly invite the separatist leadership, if not to seek meetings with them in Srinagar. Eager to claim credit for such an initiative and score a point over the pseudo-separatist PDP, the NC leaders had been perceptibly optimistic after New Delhi’s recent decision of releasing separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s passport.

“We are not completely disappointed”, said a senior Minister of Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet who hoped Prime Minister to announce a substantial employment and economic package at a news conference on his departure for the Union capital on Thursday.

Interestingly, Prime Minister paid little attention to senior Congress leader and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s plea that 2,000 to 3,000 of those families in J&K could be easily accommodated in Indian Railways---the biggest employer in the world---whose land had been fully acquired for laying of the railway track and raising of other infrastructure. Azad had a concern for such families as Ministry of Railways has not kept its word and, till date, no special recruitment package has been announced exclusively for the youth belonging to Jammu & Kashmir.

Dr Singh, instead, sounded critical of the delivery system in J&K as he had no hesitation to say that benefits of the huge flow of Central funding had not reached the grass-root level. He said that his Government had sanctioned an amount of Rs 356 Crore for development and conservation of Dal Lake but insisted that a Task Force would be constituted to monitor the spending. He asserted that his Government had brought about a revolution of infrastructural development in J&K and said that with the full Central assistance of Rs 385 Crore, Mughal Road would in near future link Shopian area of Kashmir valley with the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu division.

Prime Minister later presided over an economic reconstruction meeting at SKICC in Srinagar but much more than unfolding any fresh economic package, he concentrated on the projects approved and undertaken in the last 6 years or currently underway in Jammu & Kashmir.

In addition to Prime Minister, UPA Chairperson and J&K Chief Minister, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Union Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee, also addressed the gathering at Wanpoh---officially named as Anantnag Railway Station. Governor N N Vohra, a number of Omar Abdullah’s cabinet colleagues, NC’s Members of Parliament, MLAs and MLCs besides PDP Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and some of his party’s MLAs were also present on the occasion.

With today’s flagging off, train service, that had been launched in the Valley nearly a year ago, will now operate between Baramulla in north Kashmir and Qazigund in south Kashmir. While Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had laid the foundation stone of Udhampur-Baramulla railway track at Baramulla in 1996, Prime Minister I K Gujral had laid it at Qazigund in 1997.

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