Hurriyat should get formal invite for dialogue: Sinha

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 11/14/2017 11:41:30 PM

`700 years ago, Shehnshah Tuglaq did demonetization’

SRINAGAR/AHMEDABAD, Nov 14(Agencies): Former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha Tuesday said that the representative, Dineshwar Sharma, appointed by Government of India to hold dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir should send a written invitation to Hurriyat leaders to participate in the dialogue process rather than giving press statements on them.
Sinha said that appointment of Sharma was a positive development and he should give a timeframe of completing his dialogue process than making it indefinite.
“Dineshwar Sharma has expressed his desire to talk to the Hurriyat, but that should be followed by Mr Sharma by sending a written invitation to Hurriyat leaders to meet them at a certain time and place. Only giving press statements will not do,” Sinha told a Srinagar based news agency KNS.
“Then he should see how the Hurriyat will respond. My own recommendation will be that if Hurriyat receives a written invitation then they should respond positively and talk to the representative,” he said.
Hurriyat leaders have rejected the dialogue process that has been initiated by Sharma by visiting for five days to the state where he met major political leaders and dozens of delegations.
Sinha said that the Centre must assure the people say from time to time that it will take the recommendations of the representative seriously and act upon them.
“There is a doubt,” he said about the earlier interlocutions and their reports on Kashmir submitted to the Centre. “Let’s try and give one more opportunity to the interlocutor of this government. We should give the representative the time and hopefully something good comes out of it,” he said.
He said that nobody in Government of India or Government of Jammu and Kashmir or political and civil society should try to wreck this initiative.
“It should be allowed through,” he said. “Also, the representative should tell people of Jammu and Kashmir that he will complete his job of talks to people and making his recommendations within a certain time limit and it should not be indefinite,” he said, adding that “giving time-frame will falsify the allegations that Hurriyat has levelled that it is only buying time and nothing will come out.”
Sinha had led a “concerned citizens” group to Kashmir last year after unrest supported and had pressed for “multi-dimensional dialogue” with Hurriyat and has asked the government to improve human rights situation.
Speaking about his impression while talking to Hurriyat leaders during his visits, Sinha said that Hurriyat had agreed to join dialogue which is without pre-conditions.
In the meanwhile, hitting at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot, Sinha said, “700 years ago a shehanshah did demonetisation. His name was Mohammed-bin-Tuglaq.” Criticising over the “ad hoc” implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST), senior BJP leader said that Jaitley who has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat is a “burden” on the people of the state.
“I want to tell you that I do not consider the finance minister a Gujarati,” said Sinha while interacting with media persons about demonetisation and GST on Tuesday. Sinha is currently on a tour of Gujarat and is expected to speak at public forums in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Vadodara.
When pointed out that Jaitley has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, Sinha said, “He might have been elected from Gujarat, but he is a burden on you. If he had not been elected from here, then a Gujarati would have got a chance in the Rajya Sabha.” Jaitley has been elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2012 and is one of the 11 Rajya Sabha MPs representing Gujarat. Jaitley had contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from Punjab but had lost.
Hitting out at the finance minister for the “ad hoc” manner in which changes are being done to GST, Sinha said that the Jaitley is responsible for all the “anomalies” in the GST. “The finance minister believes in the principle: Heads I win, Tails you lose… He cannot take credit for imposing on the country a deeply flawed tax system. The country and the people of the country are well within their rights to demand that he should lose his job,” the BJP leader added.
When asked that Gujarat had opposed the implementation of GST when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state, Sinha said that it is on record in the parliamentary proceedings that the then state finance minister Saurabh Patel who had represented Gujarat had opposed the taxation system saying that Gujarat stands to lose Rs 9000 crore with its implementation.

 

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