Civil society continues meeting people
Our purpose is to connect with Kashmir: Sinha
NL Correspondent
SRINAGAR: A civil society delegation led by former Union Finance Minister and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha continued of meeting people in Kashmir and said the purpose of the meeting was to connect with people of the Valley.
On Wednesday Sinha along with his four members held two separate meetings with the trade unions of Kashmir including Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) and Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) where issues related to the prevailing situation were discussed.
Soon after the meeting, Sinha spoke to media and said that his visit instead of political, should be seen on humanitarian effort to connect with the people of Kashmir.
“This group has visited here for humanity. Our focus is to understand the pain of the people and to associate ourselves with them. In this regard, we are trying to meet all the stakeholders here,” he said.
Regarding their meeting with the KCCI, Sinha said that the business association as an important stakeholder put their points before the team which were later discussed in the meeting.
“We requested them for the meeting and being an old organization KCCI gave their time to us and spoke to us. They put forward their points and we too had some. We had discussion in a good atmosphere,” he said.
The former finance minister hoped that the meeting will prove productive saying that the response from the traders has been favorable. “With the response we got from them, we can say that we can be a part in their sufferings and pain,” he said.
When asked about the failure of previously held meeting during 2008 and 2010 unrest, Sinha said that they will take care of it and will look forward.
“We can go back 2000 years and say there was pain like this. We will take care of what has happened in the past but we will look forward,” he said.
Later the former finance minister met with KEA representatives and expressed his satisfaction over the effort.
“We went here to talk with the members of Kashmir Economic Alliance and the meeting culminated in a good atmosphere. They expressed their concern and we have expressed our hope regarding that,” he said.
Meanwhile the traders union said that they have pitched for the meaningful dialogue and resolution to the Kashmir issues in their separate meeting.
“We told the delegation that Kashmir is a political problem which needed to be solved by India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir through unconditional and sustained dialogue in the interest of peace, prosperity and wellbeing of the people of the region in a way that it becomes a WIN-Win situation for all as had been visualized by the former prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We told them that earlier the reports of the delegations and interlocutors, who visited here were thrown into dustbins by the Government of India,” KCCI president Sheikh Mushtaq Wani said.
KEA spokesperson Siraj Ahmad Khan said they have put few important points before the group which it felt to be addressed on immediate basis.
“We want to make it clear that this group is not an official delegation but have visited here on their individual capacity. We interacted with them and we put few of the points. We asked them that a dialogue should be initiated in which Hurriyat be the stakeholders as well. We told them that Kashmir is a political issues and needs to be resolved. After that we asked them about uplifting of Kashmir's economy but we emphasized them that it is only possible after Kashmir issue is resolved,” he said.
