Centre ignored our inputs on Kashmir, says Oppn

The opposition leaders have accused the Centre of ignoring their inputs on settling the unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the task for the Ministry of External Affairs to establish contacts with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) residents living across the world and find out the atrocities they face and let the world know about it.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “The outcome of the all-party meeting on Friday was a 40-minute lecture by the prime minister looking straight into the camera. We were all sitting there. All that we had discussed in the earlier three hours did not reflect in what he said finally.”

Yechury said that the Opposition made many suggestions in the meeting, but there was no response on lifting AFSPA or the use of pellet guns on protesters.

“The only response was the Home Minister telling us that the suggestions had been noted and will be taken into consideration," he told a TV news channel. “The government has some game-plan and this consultation did not serve as an input.”

Senior Congress leaders felt that “the meeting was mostly about Pakistan bashing and jingoism by the prime minister and it did not produce results. We all just repeated what we had said in Rajya Sabha. The only difference was that the prime minister was not present there and he was present here,” a senior leader said.

Former Union minister Kapil Sibal said, “We discussed Kashmir in Parliament, but the prime minister wasn’t there. During the debate on Dalit atrocities, the prime minister was absent.”