New Delhi, Oct 31: Noted lawyer and BJP Member Parliament, Ram Jethmalani Sunday said there were people in India who were not interested in solving the vexed Kashmir issue.
In an interview with a New Delhi-based daily, Jethmalani accused Congress of sabotaging a solution they had conceived for Kashmir when he headed the Kashmir Committee.
“I personally thought we had practically reached a solution. We had a written agreement with the Hurriyat leaders on five important issues, knowing fully well that they were talking to us with the full knowledge and consent of Pakistan. The main points are —violence and terror were to be totally outlawed; the solution must be acceptable to all parties and sections, which means it included people of Ladakh and Jammu.
Extremist positions like scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution and the demand for secession were to be abandoned by both sides, displaced Pandits have to be rehabilitated with full honour and dignity and that the new dispensation will be a democracy of equal rights, which meant it would be a secular state,” he said, when asked why no nothing tangible came out from the Kashmir Committee.
 Jethmalani said it didn’t work because they received no encouragement. “There are people in this country who have an interest in not solving the problem. They are a pervasive phenomenon and it is not an unfair statement to say that Pakistan is full of them,” he said.
 Asked whether the BJP-led NDA government supported him, he said, “None. It was not interested in the Kashmir Committee taking the credit. And there was sabotage from Congress.”
 Jethmalani referred to the criticism faced by the recently appointed interlocutors on Kashmir. “See the criticism now. The attitude should have been if they succeed well and good, congratulate them; if they don't, sympathize with them. I have serious misgivings that they will succeed. That's why I am praying for them. What harm are they doing? But there is a ray of hope,” he said.
 Asked if he placed the solution he had worked out before the government, he said, “An emissary of President Musharraf, brought a draft settlement to me. I was so impressed with its wisdom and content that I sought permission to make a few changes and fine tune it. These changes were communicated and they were approved. But no one in the country responded.”
 Asked if he recently violated the party stand by defending the Kashmir interlocutors, he said, “I have not been told about the party's stand. I do not think the party has a stand on what the interlocutors should say.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 1 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST