Mehbooba Mufti rejected Farooq Abdullah's suggestion to involve other countries in talks with Pakistan.
Highlights
- Farooq Abdullah suggested India seek help from others to talk to Pakistan
- Talks with Pak necessary but others should not be involved: Mehbooba
- Does Farooq sahib wish the same fate as Iraq and Syria on us: Mehbooba
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said that India and Pakistan should resolve their differences through talks between themselves. Lashing out at National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah who had suggested India should seek help from "friends" such as the US for talking to Pakistan, she asked if he wanted Jammu and Kashmir to be the next Iraq or Syria.
"Be it America or China, they should mind their own business. You know wherever America has intervened... just look at Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq. China has its own issue over Tibet. So I think we understand that even after war we have to talk. India and Pakistan have to talk amongst themselves. What role do other countries have in this? Does Farooq
sahib wish the same fate as Iraq and Syria on us?" she said.
Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah too had yesterday underscored the need for dialogue between India and Pakistan. But he said, "How long will you wait for talks? Will you wait for 1,000 years? You have to take the bull by the horns. Sometimes you have to do it. You have atom bomb and they too have atom bomb. How many people will get killed?"
"This is not the way. The only way is dialogue. Take a friend's help, we say we have friends across the world. So take their help for talks and tell them we want to solve it," the 79-year-old leader said.
Referring to statements from the US and China expressing their willingness to play a role, he said the government could use its friends to get the dialogue started. "You have to use someone for the talks," he said.
Ally Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi however, disagreed and said there was no need to involve others for something that was India's internal matter. "Kashmir is India, India is Kashmir," he said.
BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao asked the former Chief Minister to stop advancing Pakistan's fake nuclear blackmail.
"Out of power, Mr Abdullah is speaking the language of separatists and of Pakistan. His flip-flops on Kashmir reek of hypocrisy," Mr Rao said in remarks that were later echoed by Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh.