KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
National Conference (NC) stalwart Mohammad Shafi Uri said in the fast changing situation at global and sub-continental level, India and Pakistan should explore ways and means for “durable peace”. He said the two countries should sit together and arrive at some solution that is commensurate with the “democratic aspirations” of the people of J&K. That would be the ideal tribute to Mufti Sayeed.
The former minister and once the right-hand man of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah termed former Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed a “secular-democrat and moderate” who understood, at the last inning of his life the larger reality that Kashmir can be handled by any political party that Delhi would control.
Uri was speaking on the obituary reference on Thursday and termed him an honest man who was not unfair to anybody.
Addressing BJP, Uri asked the right-wingers to re-assess the changed situation and play a positive role. “We have moved from the days of Eak Pradhan, Eak Vidhan and now there are serious efforts to get connected to the world that has revived the Babar memories,” Uri said in direct reference to India’s efforts to reconnect with Iran and Afghanistan.
”Now we take Ghalib’s poetry to reclaim friendship and it is a challenge to BJP to see what it wants to do in a changed world,” he added.
Uri told them that the people of Indian sub-continent are keeping them in sharp observation to see how the right-wing works to retain the integrity of the state of J&K.
“They want to see how you will accommodate the democratic aspirations of the people of J&K,” he said. “How it will contribute in creating durable peace in the region and how will it restore the Article 370 to its un-amended position.” He even pricked Sajjad Lone for writing a “thick book” for the solution of Kashmir.
Uri was member of the assembly as an independent lawmaker when Mufti was Works Minister in Mir Syed regime in 1972. He was later given education ministry in 1975.
“As minister he was fair and honest,” Uri said, “Then the opposition was limited to Jama’at-e-Islami and Jan Sangh but Mufti was fair to everybody and would accommodate all.”
Post-accord, Uri said situation was very difficult in Kashmir when Mufti was appointed to head Congress. Insisting that Mufti supported Sheikh, Uri, however, claimed that 1975 emergency was not implemented in J&K. “Mufti kept Congress alive in the worst situation,” Uri said, “He is the only Kashmiri leader who won from R S Pora thus proving that he was neither restricted to a region or a faith.”
Uri said that though he would personally remember Mufti as a “moderate” but would leave the history to pass the final judgement. He left Congress and later re-joined the party after he felt his concerns were addressed.
“But it was later that he understood the larger reality that a political party that has control in Delhi cannot succeed in J&K, especially Kashmir and that is why he founded PDP,” Uri said. “With this he sent out a message to Delhi that Kashmir has its own culture, own history and its own identity that cannot be fiddled with.”
Uri said the North Pole–South Pole alliance will have to see for itself which role should it play in the backdrop of what Mufti stood for.
