"The confrontation of past over six decades has not yielded anything except for miseries and sufferings to the people in whole of the region. There is a growing realisation in both the countries that dialogue is the only way to settle all contentious issues," state secretary of CPI (M) M Y Tarigami said while addressing a function at Kulgam, 75 km from here.
"As the world is set to welcome New Year, today I urge upon the leadership of the two countries to draw lessons from the hostilities between them and achievements they made through unfortunate skirmishes in last over 60 years,"he said.
Tarigami said India and Pakistan must prevail upon the negative attitudes integral to their domestic politics as it was in the interest of the whole region not to let hostile narrative to dominate their political discourse.
The communist leader said it has become inevitable for the two countries to reverse their policy directions and the alternative lies in a massive hike in investment on dialogue and building bilateral bonds.
"This will surely create significant new opportunities to sort out differences and contribute to the domestic demand in both the countries. A meaningful, sustainable and more inclusive dialogue can be set in motion with such an alternative policy direction. This is all the more relevant in the present global context," he said.
He said there are many challenges to pursue a result- oriented dialogue but a conscious and gradual approach is needed to remove the layers of negative disposition among the people.
"Of course, it has to be a gradual process and it may take time but the change of attitude is possible," he said.
Expressing grief over passing away of Delhi gang-rape victim, Tarigami said Kashmir too has many rape victims who still crave for justice and the government of the day must review the outdated laws in this regard.
"It should be seen how to make the existing laws more stringent to tackle such crimes. Besides, fast track courts should be introduced to dispose off the already pending cases of this nature," he said.
"Above all, society needs to stand up against these crimes so that women feel secure and safe in their homes and outside," he added.
