The main Opposition BJP on Saturday warned the government that any thought of giving autonomy to Kashmir would amount to a “post-dated cheque” for freedom. The party claimed Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing the worst situation since Independence and militants are virtually practising “ethnic cleansing”/
Speaking on the issue, senior BJP leader and the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said, “The biggest example of failure of Indian secularism is Kashmir. Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave. Sikhs who go there are beaten up and their hair is cut. This is like ethnic cleansing as those who do not adhere to their (separatists) religion are forced to leave.”
Mr Jaitley was speaking at a function organised by the party as part of “Save Kashmir Day”.
The party warned the Centre that it should not think of granting autonomy to Kashmir under pressure from “stone-throwers in the Valley” who had caused a law and order situation in the state.
Mr Jaitley said there was a growing perception among separatists active in the Valley that the Manmohan Singh government was “weak and it is very easy to get anything from it”.
“The Prime Minister has run out of ideas. He feels forming a commission for economic and industrial development and job creation is the solution,” the BJP leader said.
He alleged that while the Central government was weak, even the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir was clueless about how to fight the separatists and stone-pelters. He further argued that the age for “redrawing geopolitical boundaries” was over and the “hope” that Article 370, which confers special status to the state, gave to separatists was a “distant, impossible dream”. The BJP leader maintained that the terrorists, after failing to win Kashmir through terrorism, have now resorted to a new strategy of mob violence.