With pollsters predicting a BJP win in the Parliamentary elections, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday expressed hope that the new dispensation in Delhi wouldn’t allow the dialogue process with Pakistan to die.
“It is important that the new government in New Delhi carries forward the process of dialogue with Pakistan and takes ahead the progress made by the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Pakistan S K Lambah in this regard,” Omar said during a seminar at Kashmir University here.
Referring to the exit polls predicting a BJP government, he said: “It would be the worst case scenario when you have a Narendra Modi-led government with an almost brutal majority of his own in Parliament. It would have to be seen to what extent he converts his stated policy on Pakistan to his actual policy because if his stated policy is going to be converted into official policy, then this dialogue process is going to die a very swift and a very unlamented death in the corridors of power in Delhi.”
“We hope that the new administration in Delhi recognises that there is a difference between what you say during the elections on issues like Pakistan and what you do when you come to power,” he said adding that he hoped the new dispensation would be able to manage the transition as happened in the NDA-UPA transition of 2004.”
Omar said transitions in the administration in Pakistan have impacted the forward movement in the back-channel dialogue more than they have done in India.
“The forward movement which we had seen during the time of President Musharraf was not at the same pace as in President Zardari’s period,” he said. India took forward the dialogue process with Pakistan both during the period of Vajpayee and Manmohan he added.