New Delhi: Hitting out at the Centre over the rise in the incidents of targeted killings in the Valley, the Congress on Friday demanded immediate steps to end the migration of Kashmiri Pandits and outsiders from Kashmir and asked the government to engage with the stakeholders to restore normalcy in the troubled valley.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, who himself is a Kashmiri Pandit, said that the government should spell out its policy for restoring normalcy in the union territory, rattled by a series of terrorist killings.
Underlining the need for greater sensitivity towards the people of Kashmir, he said, "Normalcy and peace cannot be brought there through propaganda. A lot of statesmanship is required to address the Kashmir issue, which is currently lacking."
"People are being killed in offices and even government offices are not secure. Please move them (Pandits and outsiders) immediately to secure places and put security around them," he said, adding that affected people should be taken into confidence so they feel safe. "The government should secure all affected people and their offices…and this has to be done in the next 24 hours, as we do not want to hear that more innocents have died," he said.
"Don't let migration happen from Kashmir as it is not good for Kashmir and is neither in the country's interest. Through this appeal I expect the central government to spell out the roadmap for restoring peace in Kashmir," he said.
"Kashmir problem is bigger than any law. You have to look at Kashmir holistically, you can't look at it in a microscopic way. I had stated during the debate in Parliament that Kashmir is larger than Article 370. Article 370 is a law which has been diluted, but Kashmir is a larger issue than 370 and to address it you need a lot of statesmanship, which was lacking," he noted.
"If you want peace, amity, you have to address stakeholders. You cannot achieve peace in Kashmir without talking to stakeholders, and history speaks out. I have not seen any such attempt in Kashmir….what I have seen is that you thought of resolving Kashmir through propaganda," he said.
"If things could be resolved through propaganda, then Hitler would have won the world. Propaganda is good, but to a limited extent, only as a means of reaching out…it can't be the basis of peace," he said.