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Srinagar, June 21 (Scoop News)- Reacting to the Makhan Lal Fotedar’s statement National Conference leader and MP Mehboob Beg today said that Fotedar is creating confusion in the minds of people about the sincerity of Government of India to address political issues of Jammu and Kashmir in a political way.
The NC leader said that by echoing the view point of separatist that Government of India is buying time and deceiving people by initiating constitution of working groups and interlocutors team to address Kashmir issue, Makhan Lal Fotedar has also put the Government of India in a piquant situation where people of Jammu and Kashmir would question its seriousness regarding addressing political issues of the State.
“The statement of Fotedar, a member of Congress Working Committee, about the formation of Working Groups, Chidambaram’s Statement and appointment of interlocutors has very serious ramifications. Fotedar’s claim that all these initiatives were aimed at ‘damage control’ has put a huge question mark on the sincerity of the union government towards finding a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue. While the National Conference strongly feels that the UPA Government is committed to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue, the statement of Fotedar has put a huge question mark on the sincerity of the union government towards finding a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir Issue”, Beg maintained.
The Member Parliament said “Working groups were constituted to address both development and political aspirations of the people of J&K. Fotedar’s statement that the Working Group were there to satisfy development aspirations only finds no basis as the working group on Centre-State relations headed by Justice Saghir Ahmed was constituted to suggest peaceful political solution to Kashmir issue.
“Autonomy is the bedrock of the National Conference and the party placed the autonomy resolution before the state legislature which passed it with 2/3 rd majority thereby reposing faith in the National Conference Party’s endeavour to work tirelessly for the restoration of the autonomy to the state. The party is on record having repeatedly stated that while it feels the restoration of autonomy can pave the way for a long term sustainable solution to the Kashmir issue it is open to any other solution which is acceptable to the all the shades of opinion who are the stakeholders in this issue . So for anybody whoever he is to suggest that autonomy is a closed issue and Kashmir’s political issue is resolved least to say is naive and show cases casual approach. This is not a fiddle it’s the peoples’ destiny and National Conference will not allow anybody to play with it least of all who are the architects of the peoples’ sufferings” he asserted
“We stand by our word for restoration of autonomy. Indira-Sheikh Accord was a move forward in this direction which was unfortunately sabotaged by the elements in the then Congress like Fotedars and Mufti’s, he said adding that the legal documents of restoration of Autonomy has been approved and passed by the State Legislature which he said is a historic fact and a pending issue with the Government of India for which National Conference would continue to endeavour.