SRINAGAR: Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday donned the mantle of his predecessor former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in breaking his silence on the one-month-old turbulence in Kashmir saying the Centre is looking for ‘development solutions’ to the people's problems.
But his assertion has come as a big disappointment to many people here and opposition mainstream parties and separatists alike described it as being ignorant of the reality on the ground and based on inaccurate feedback on the situation.
After hearing the Prime Minister speak at a gathering at Bhabra, Alirajpur, in Madhya Pradesh, many people in the Valley and fellow Kashmiris living outside quickly took to the social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, to complain that Mr Modi has not uttered a single word on the loss of human lives during the unrest.
Mr Modi also said, “Indians loved Kashmir but there are some elements who were hurting the great tradition of ‘Kashmiriyat’”. Though he acknowledged that dialogue resolves issues in a democracy, he chose not to speak on chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s suggestion to revive talks with Islamabad on Kashmir.
Reacting to Mr Modi’s assertion that his government believes in Mr Vajpayee’s mantra of ‘Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat’ (humanity, democracy and Kashmiriyat – the ethno-national and social consciousness and cultural values of the Kashmiri people), Kashmiri poet and author Khalid Bashid Ahmed wrote on his Facebook timeline, “Insaniyat through bullets and Jamhooriyat through pellets.” Many on the social networking sites lamented that he spoke of Kashmir and not Kashmiris.
