Srinagar: As the country remembers former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his centenary birth anniversary, leaders of political parties in Kashmir on Wednesday lauded the BJP stalwart’s humanistic approach to conflict resolution over a military solution.
Former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said she misses the former prime minister.
“I miss him! For the first time, I saw a leader besides Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi who had an emotional connect with Kashmir. He was a leader, and that too from BJP, who tried to cater to the humanitarian view of the Kashmir issue,” she said.
Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was one of the key Hurriyat Conference leaders to engage in a dialogue with the Vajpayee government, credited the former prime minister with opening “a new chapter of hope in Kashmir”.
AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir said Vajpayee did not allow his Sangh Parivar ideology to reflect in public service.
“Of all the leaders post the freedom struggle, Atal Bihari Vajpayee proved his mettle in politics with his competence. Despite his association with a party of a different agenda, he never let it reflect in public service. The entire country knows that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had said that he has so much potential that one day, he will become the prime minister of the country,” Mir said.
The Mirwaiz lauded Vajpayee for his vision and “humanistic approach”, emphasizing dialogue over military solutions.
“It was his vision that when talks were initiated with the Hurriyat, he declared that the government of India would engage in the ambit of humanity, Kashmiriyat, and democracy, accommodating our viewpoint in the process,” the Hurriyat chairman said.
The Mirwaiz lamented the abandonment of Vajpayee’s policies, saying “his political legacy still carries a window of opportunity, but the present regime has buried it, instead adopting the hard-line approach of dealing with Kashmir through force and disempowerment.”
The PDP president recalled Vajpayee’s bold move of reaching out to Pakistan, saying “he walked the talk”.
“He tried to reach out to Pakistan, which is seen as the biggest enemy at this point in time. He even tried to reach out to the separatists in J&K which happened for the first time,” she said.
Mufti claimed that it was a conversation between her late father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Vajpayee that led to the opening of Line of Control routes between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“I remember my father telling him, ‘Why don’t you start a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue?’ His answer was, ‘Mufti ji what do I do, they want Kashmir.’ My father then asked him why don’t we make the borders irrelevant so that both Kashmirs come together and see what’s on the other side… He was the one who initiated the opening of Muzaffarabad road, Rawlakot road,” she added.
The PDP president said for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, there was a prime minister who tried to find a solution to the Kashmir issue.
“That had never happened before. I think Kashmiris also remember those days and as far as development is concerned, he never said no to anything,” she said.
Mufti said this was one of the reasons that her father joined hands with the BJP after the 2014 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I think there’s no one like Vajpayee,” she added.
Mufti said Vajpayee shunned his right-wing image after his election as prime minister.
“He was a different political leader. Despite the fact that he came from BJP or Sangh Parivar, once he became the PM, he behaved like the PM of the whole of India, the PM of Kashmiris, which doesn’t happen very often. Today, we have PM Modi. He has such a huge mandate but he’s not able to come out of that BJP mould,” she said.
Mehbooba said despite obstacles like the Kargil War, the attack on Parliament and other things happening, “he still went ahead with his peace process”.
“He was a man of commitment and conviction, which unfortunately today’s politicians lack. They lack that insight, they lack that vision which Vajpayee had,” she said.
Mir recalled Vajpayee’s defeat in the 1984 Lok Sabha election from his hometown Gwalior, saying “everyone facilitated his election to Rajya Sabha” two years later.
“When Rajiv Gandhi came after Indira Gandhi’s era, he took 425 seats. Vajpayee had lost that time. Rajiv Gandhi remarked that without Vajpayee, Parliament looked incomplete,” Mir added.
The AICC general secretary claimed that with reference to Jammu and Kashmir, Vajpayee adopted the Congress approach.
“When you connect him with Jammu and Kashmir, I think as a prime minister, he adopted the same method as was adopted by the Congress party. He ran an engagement process with angry people and listened to their views. He chose that path,” he added.
