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India Never Accepted Tripartite Talks on Kashmir: Advani

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Srinagar, India, March 25, IRNA
India-Kashmir-Tripartite Talks
The former deputy prime minister and union home minister of India, L K Advani, has said that India can never accept tripartite talks over the Kashmir issue, nor would the issue be discussed outside the framework of the constitution.

Advani has outright rejected reports that during his tenure in 2004 he had struck a deal with the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference to hold talks on the Kashmir issue outside the ambit of the constitution.

Writing in his recently published memoirs, My Country, My Life, Advani, however, says that he had a different approach towards moderate Kashmiri leaders and parties under which he thought of how to hold talks with them.

He says that he was surprised by the attitude of the NDA government's security advisor, Brajesh Mishra, and former RAW chief, A S Dulat, the latter then being an advisor on Kashmir affairs in the prime minister's office who thought that the centre could hold talks with the separatists outside the ambit of the constitution.

He says that he had always opposed this approach, and his view had been that any talks on Kashmir could only be held within the country's constitution.

He says that a certain stage had been reached when the centre held talks with the Hurriyat Conference in 2004 as to how the Kashmir issue could be solved step by step that could be in accordance with the Indian constitution.

He says that it had been settled with the Hurriyat Conference that peace should be restored in Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible, and that the centre would consider the terms and conditions advanced by the Hurriyat.

The stage also included that Jammu and Kashmir was an internal region of India, Advani writes.

He says that at that time he had found the moderate Hurriyat leaders to be of open mind, and having come for the talks with an open mind.

Referring to the autonomy resolution passed by the National Conference government in 2002, the former deputy prime minister says that the centre had totally rejected the document, and the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had told the then J and K chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, that he was free to leave or stay put with the NDA government.

But Abdullah stayed on and continued to hold the reins of power in the state.

In spite of the 1953 position, or autonomy, being rejected by the central cabinet, Abdullah preferred to stay in the government, he says.

According to Advani, the special position accorded to Jammu and Kashmir has been implemented by the 1975 accord between the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and Shiekh Muhammad Abdullah.

In view of the accord, no changes can now be made in the Indian constitution, he says.

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