Centre's policy on Kashmir 'directionless', says Sibal

Maintaining that the Centre's policy on Kashmir is "directionless", Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday said until they formulate a national policy on Kashmir by taking the Congress and other opposition parties in confidence, no progress will be made in this direction.

"Until they formulate a national policy by taking the Congress and other opposition parties in confidence on what we need to do in Kashmir, the progress will not be made in this direction. They have reports of interlocutors and four committees set up by Manmohan Singh's government, they should read it and act upon it," Sibal told ANI.

However, they don't have any direction; on the one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends (Pakistan Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif's party, while on the other hand, Home Minister Rajnath Singh returns without attending a SAARC luncheon. Thus, we don't understand their politics of 'daawats' (parties).

Criticising the BJP-led Centre for raising the issue of serving 'biryani' to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab in the jail, Sibal said, "Now, they are in government and can't make allegations of 'biryani' and 'love letter', because they themselves had biryani party."

"Nawaz Sharif has raised the Kashmir issue at the U.N and other international platforms, and also said that they were with terrorists, which no country would tolerate. And thus, Prime Minister Modi also cannot hold talks with him (Sharif)," he added.

The Prime Minister in his concluding speech at the all-party meeting on Friday said the unrest in the Kashmir Valley was Pakistan-sponsored.

The Prime Minister further said, "When we talk about Jammu and Kashmir, we should talk about four regions - Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.