Commenting over Army’s presence in Kashmir, Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday said Army must not stay in the conflict-torn region a longer period as it could have several repercussions.
Kejriwal while speaking in a news talk show ‘Candidate 2014’ stated that the government in New Delhi must prioritize its efforts to win the hearts of the people of Kashmir and that once it succeeds in doing so the positive change becomes inevitable.
The former Delhi chief minister said, “We don’t need lathis and guns in Kashmir- what we need is the positive approach so that the people of the region could be befriended. We have to win their hearts.”
However AAP chief added that he cannot comment over the period for which arm has to stay in Kashmir. “I can only say that we don’t need army for a longer period in Kashmir.”
Commenting over Article 370, Kejriwal said that the law must stay and should not be abrogated. “We have different types of agreements of accession with different states in India. We have one type of agreement with the tribal areas and one with the hilly areas- India is a country with lot of diversity.”
Substantiating his claims, Kejriwal said that there like Article 370 that provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir, there is Article 371, Article 371 (a,b,c) and that there are 13 more states other than Jammu and Kashmir with which we have agreements of different nature.
“There are two types of federalism. One is symmetrical and another one is asymmetrical. Existence of India was a continuous process- Sikkim was included in the union territory later one. I think we must not touch the Article 370. Whatever is there in the constitution is good.”
Reiterating that ‘Kashmir is India’s integral part’, Kejriwal stated that when we call Kashmir as part of India, we have to accept that its people are our own people and are no different from us. “Once we win the hearts of the people of Kashmir- everything will be resolved.”
