New Delhi:
In a huge embarrassment for the BJP, senior lawyer and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani has come out in strong support of the J&K interlocutors' panel.
In a statement, Jethmalani said: "Neither by acts nor by words, should we add to their difficulties. It is childish and churlish to attack them as internalising the issue. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by his confabulations with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and recently Foreign Minister SM Krishna confabulating with his counterpart Mr Qureshi were doing exactly that. The dialogue with Pakistan is a compulsory legacy of the Shimla Agreement of 1972. We cannot wish it out of existence."
The BJP had strongly criticised panel member Dileep Padgaonkar's remarks on Pakistan being key to a permanent Kashmir solution.
"The interlocutors have taken up a difficult responsibility and whether they will be able to fulfill it or not is unknown. But despite all this, the country should congratulate them for taking up this task and secondly God should give them success in it. I am against the criticism that is taking place and this should not happen," added Jethmalani.
The BJP termed the statement as Jethmalani's personal views and said the party has nothing to do with it.