Country's leadership morally bound to find solution to Kashmir

Successive central governments have failed "to engage with the political sentiments" in Kashmir in a sustainable and reconciliatory manner, Opposition National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today alleged and urged the country's leadership to find a sustainable solution to the "political issue".
It is the Prime Minister's moral duty to take every possible reconciliatory measure to initiate a process for resolution of Kashmir issue, he said while batting for a sustained and comprehensive engagement with the people of the state and India's neighbours.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said there "never was and never would be" an alternative to a broad- based, nuanced and sustained political engagement with stakeholders in Kashmir and it was the moral duty of the country's leadership to resolve the Kashmir issue without any further delay.

"Sadly, successive central governments in New Delhi failed to engage with the political sentiment in Kashmir in a sustained, detailed and planned manner so that this issue could be resolved once for all," Abdullah said while interacting with public delegations at the National Conference headquarters here.
While various initiatives were announced and started at various junctures, almost all of them were plagued by a lack of political will and consistency, he contended.
The effect of these initiatives is far more crucial to the welfare of our people than purely the intent and sadly these initiatives were left halfway or were half-hearted to start with, the NC leader said.

"For any progress towards the goal of ushering the state and the region into a corrective era of peace and stability, this pattern needs to change," Abdullah said.

He said the country's leadership was morally bound to find a sustainable solution to "a political issue" that had consumed thousands of lives and resulted in multiple military conflicts in the sub-continent especially detrimental to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
"It is the moral duty of the Prime Minister and his Government to take every possible reconciliatory measure to initiate a process that would see the resolution of this issue as per the aspirations of the people," he said.

The Kashmir issue has both internal and external dimensions and this makes sustained and comprehensive engagement with our neighbours equally important, he said.
Both internal and external engagement should go on simultaneously, he added.
He said there was a need to empathize with the victims of this conflict and understand that their woes would not go away by rhetoric and "stentorian" speeches alone.
"They need closure and justice and there can be no alternative to a political initiative that is serious, politically empowered and sustainable.
"The central government needs to explore every possible way to reach out to every quarter of opinion in the state irrespective of their political ideologies or rhetoric," he said.