Author: ENS & Agencies
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 10, 2001
Chennai, December 9: The Union Government
will not allow the controversial Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act, permitting
people who migrated from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan in 1947 to return
to the state, to be implemented, Minister of State I.D. Swamy said here
today.
Addressing a seminar on J-K - An
Integral Part of India - organised by Vigil-CIFJKINDIA here, he said that
the Centre had several options on this and would choose the best possible
one. One of them would be of course, to ask the state to repeal the Act.
The Supreme Court, with whom the Act had been lying for the last two decades,
recently returned it to the state without offering any opinion.
The Bill, which had been opposed
by the then state governor, was referred to the SC. But after the court
returned it without any opinion, it was passed again by the Assembly, forcing
the Governor to sign the Bill into law.
Swamy also refused to detail the
post-Taliban strategy India would follow in the state, but said that the
country was adequately equipped to handle terrorists from across the border
if they shifted base from Afghanistan to Pak-occupied Kashmir.
''The government is alive and prepared
to face any situation,'' he said. ''The Centre might resort to more stringent
measures, if the need arose, to curb the violence in Kashmir.''
As it was impossible to launch a
conventional or nuclear war against India, Pakistan had been waging a proxy
war killing thousands of civilians and police, he charged, but added it
would eventually bite the dust. The Centre would not allow precious human
lives to be lost in the name of protection of human rights.
Some restrictions were needed and
that was the reason why POTO had been introduced, he noted. He expressed
confidence that POTO would be passed in Parliament.
Swamy said the Congress was opposing
the POTO only because of ego problems. ''It is pure ego on the part of
the Congress,'' he said. Swamy said that though some chief ministers had
during their recently-held meeting opined that before bringing the ordinance
they should have been consulted, it was unnecessary.
However, the Prime Minister has
assured that all parties would be consulted before the Bill was piloted
in Parliament, he said, adding that all chief ministers and members of
a consultative committee of home affairs had agreed that there was a need
for a special act to combat terrorism.
On the abrogation of Article 370,
he said that the Congress Working Committee had torn the draft of the Article
into pieces when it was introduced way back in 1948.
''But now, the very same Congress
will call those who seek abolition of this provision as communal and fundamentalists.
Even Nehru, while giving the special status, had said that it was only
transitory.''
Former High Commissioner to Pakistan
G. Parthasarathy said that Pakistan had been spreading false information
for decades together. Another major hurdle was that there was no political
stability in that country owing to the military's lust for power. This
had a telling effect on its external policy, especially with India, he
noted.
Even if a referendum was to be held
based on the UN resolution, it could not be done without Pakistan withdrawing
its terrorists from the Indian soil. He also warned that there were chances
of imminent major offensive from the terrorists and the Army's hands should
not be kept tied by any means.
Even if Kashmir was given to Pakistan
on a platter the conflict would not end as the popular opinion was against
that. In fact, the target of Pakistan was to destabilise the pluralist,
secular fabric of our nation, he said.
