JAMMU: Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had moved a note for the Cabinet Committee on Security, proposing dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the starting point being the Instrument of Accession, according to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Chidambaram wanted to make the Instrument of Accession the "mother of confidence-building measures" but it was rejected, claimed Aiyar, a former union minister himself, while talking to reporters here.
He said a dialogue on Kashmir should be initiated keeping the Instrument of Accession as the starting point.
He said people of Jammu and Kashmir should be asked as to which central laws they want to retain and which ones they want to discontinue.
"We should start a structured dialogue without being afraid. You will come to some conclusion," he said.
"If we have to resolve this (Kashmir) issue, this Instrument of Accession, which was signed in 1947, has to be kept in mind and from there we have to start. Then, we should discuss what you (people of J&K) want to keep and what you do not want to keep (among laws and acts implemented since then)," Aiyar said.
He said Chidambaram had revealed that when he was a minister, he had gone with a note to the CCS to make the Instrument of Accession the "mother of confidence-building measures" on J&K.
"Chidambaram had presented a secret note to the Cabinet Committee on Security when he was a minister. It was rejected and now he has made it public and revealed his position that the government should go back to the people of J&K starting with 1947. He recommended greater autonomy," he said.
He said Chidambaram has now been made a member of the Congress' Policy Planning Group on Kashmir.
"(In) the report, which is going to be submitted to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, I hope that Chidambaram's note will get a space in this report. I want to support Chidambaram on this," Aiyar said.
He then quipped that he himself has not been made a member of the Congress' Policy Planning group on Kashmir.
"We are all being blamed on Kashmir, particularly the Congress for 60 years' rule, and the rest 10 years' rule by the BJP. Whatever has happened has happened. We want to move ahead in a positive direction," he said.
"What can we achieve by targeting Jawahar Lal Nehru, who is now dead. We should go to 1947. This is my opinion and the Congress has not accepted it as yet," he said.
Aiyar, who met various sections of the society here, said, "We can discuss what you (people of the state) want to keep and what you do not want to keep."
He expressed confidence that 90 per cent of the central laws and Acts implemented in J&K since 1947 will be "reaccepted" by the people of the state.
"It is all connected with money... If all these laws are not implemented here, how will the money come? Jammu and Kashmir receive much higher capital from the centre than any other state," he said.
Giving examples, Aiyar said, "Unless and until you accept MGNREGA and the Act in the state, no money can come to the state."
Referring to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, he said it is an Act which guarantees right to education and "if you don't want to accept it, it is for you to find the money for undertaking education under the Guarantee Act."
He noted that all these rules and Acts were implemented in Jammu and Kashmir by the state Assembly keeping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution intact.
"If you don't want (jurisdiction of) Election Commission here, how will you conduct elections? What are you objecting to? Who brought these laws here? You accepted it," he said.
"During that period, they (senior generation) accepted and implemented those laws in J&K happily and today I feel that this generation do not want its continuation," he said.
Aiyar said J&K did not accept 73rd and 74th amendment to Panchayati Raj Act and as a result, no money is coming to the state. "Good sense has not been coming," he added.