SRINAGAR: The BJP General Secretary and party’s point man on Kashmir, Ram Madhav on Thursday said the central government was open for unconditional dialogue with all the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have maintained from the beginning that our doors are open to all stakeholders in the State for talks. They are welcome to come and hold talks with the state government as well as the central government,” Madhav told reporters after a meeting of party leaders at Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh’s residence, here today.
The BJP general secretary arrived here today on a two-day visit to interact with party leaders to take stock of party affairs and review performance of the party ministers and PDP-BJP coalition government.
He would be visiting Jammu tomorrow to interact with the party leaders and ministers there.
In response to a question, Madhav said, “We are open to dialogue. The question should be asked to those, who do not want to come for dialogue. Those who want to come for dialogue, we are open and ready to talk to them. In fact, we are ready to talk to everybody, who want to come and talk to us.”
Asked about any possible dialogue with Hurriyat, the BJP leader said, “We are open to dialogue with all those who want to come and have a dialogue without any preconditions.”
Referring to situation in Kashmir, Madhav said they were confident that normalcy would be restored in Valley very soon if opposition parties also cooperate with them.
“If they do not engage in political game of provocations, we will very soon see complete normalcy in the State,” he said.
In response to a question on militancy and cross-border firing, Madhav said, “As far as militancy and cross-border firing, the neighbour (indirectly referring to Pakistan) we have will continue to foment trouble here. However, security forces will foil all their games and won’t allow them to succeed”.
He said militancy seems to be on decline in Kashmir due to the efforts of government and security forces. “J&K people have suffered a lot and now it is time development becomes the focus here”.
On a question about settlement of Rohingya Muslim refugees, he said the issue was now in the Supreme Court.
“The central government has already said that this issue will be handled keeping in view the security situation. The issue will be dealt with the security perspective also,” he added.
As per J&K government, atleast 5,743 Rohingya Muslims are living in the State at present.
Most of the Rohingya Muslim refugees have been staying in districts of Jammu and Samba in Jammu province while at least 17 families are living in outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of the State.