Interlocutors' report ignores aspirations of azadi: Fai
01 June, 2012
WASHINGTON: The Executive Director of Kashmiri American Council, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai has said that the India-appointed interlocutors report on Kashmir is a mess, a diversion from the primary interests of the people and an outright diversionary tactic by the members of the group. While reacting to the report, Dr Fai said that the document fell far short of the real goal. "The wishes and aspirations of the people are Aazadi, which were completely ignored in the report," he deplored. He maintained that India was simply buying time to avoid the inevitable, a real political solution to the Kashmir dispute. Dr. Fai said that the people had revolted against the status quo and talking about "Article 370 is an insult to the intelligence of the Kashmiri people." "The interlocutors have read the situation in Kashmir through the old grimy lenses of policy makers in New Delhi and did not bother to recognize that it is the obduracy and stubbornness of India that fails to accept the fact that Kashmir is not a law and order issue, nor is it a center-state question; it is primarily an issue of the 17 million people of Jammu and Kashmir which under all international agreements is not an integral part of any member state of the United Nations, including India and Pakistan. If that historical fact is ignored, there cannot be any lasting solution to this tragic situation," Fai added. Dr. Fai warned India may make a deal with any so-called leader of Kashmir, but deal making does not by itself establish legitimacy. "The report nowhere says that the dominant desire of the people of Kashmir as confirmed by the survey conducted by British-based Chatham House on May 27, 2010 is Aazadi or freedom from occupation. The survey says that 90 to 95 % of the people of the Valley demanded Aazadi. The word Aazadi wasn't even mentioned in the report," Fai pointed out. "The interlocutors wittingly or unwittingly do not want to acknowledge the true sentiments of the people, which obviously they know are for freedom from occupation. Their approach seems to have been merely bureaucratic," Dr. Fai concluded. End.
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