Yashwant Sinha, former external affairs minister, has resumed his Track II diplomacy 'Peace Mission' 3.0 in a bid to mobilise support for a dialogue on Kashmir.
Yashwant Sinha | PTI
Sinha, who is leading a delegation, resumed his mission two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir from the ramparts of Red Fort saying that Kashmir problem cannot be solved by 'goli' (bullets) or 'gaali' (abuses) but embracing the people of Kashmiris.
“Several people have welcomed what Modi has said. It has rekindled a ray of hope,” Sinha told reporters.
Later he met National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and party working president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar at their residences in Srinagar.
“Open-ended and comprehensive dialogue is the only way forward to ensure peace and reconciliation in the state,” Omar told the delegation and reiterated the party's stand on Article 35A and Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sinha said he is on a peace mission to meet a cross section of society and know about the political situation in Kashmir.
“We have nothing to do with the government,'' he said. ''We will meet people to see how the peace initiative can be taken forward.”
He said they want to end the bloodshed and restore peace in Kashmir.
This is the third time when the former foreign minister has come to Kashmir on a peace mission.
Last year, he visited the state with a five-member team during the height of unrest and met with Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who had refused to meet a parliamentary delegation. Several people were killed while many others were blinded in the stone pelting during the violence that began after the death of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani.
Sinha's fresh visit comes at a time when the state is headed to another agitation over the move to get the state subject law under Article 35A scrapped by the Supreme Court.
The mainstream and the separatists have warned of an agitation if the law that prevents outsiders from settling in Kashmir was scrapped.
Charu Wali Khanna, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir but was settled outside the state, has challenged the legality of the Article 35A in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the law disenfranchises and takes away her succession rights. The Article has also been challenged by an RSS-backed 'NGO 'We the People' which contends that the Article is a Presidential order which should be struck down as it bans citizens of India, outside Jammu and Kashmir, from settling in the state.
