Dr Singh made honest attempts to address Kashmir imbroglio: Tarigami

For lone Kashmiri communist leader MY Tarigami, passing away of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is a “huge setback” especially for Kashmir since he believes the stalwart political leader and economist understood Kashmir imbroglio well, who made “honest” attempts to address the problem and heal the “bruised souls” in the region during his tenure holding the country’s highest office.

Tarigami recalls how during Dr Singh’s tenure, initiatives were made to address the Kashmir problem. It was during Dr Singh’s time, Tarigami also got a chance to be a part of working group that went to Pakistan to meet then country’s head General Pervez Musharraf.

“During Musharraf’s time, a four point formula was proposed by him. There was some dialogue, different channels were working. There was one group led by Nirmala Deshpande, a veteran Gandhian. Under her leadership, three of us including retired general Moti Dhar—a Kashmiri Pandit, who was vice chief of Indian Army were allowed to visit Pakistan to meet General Musharraf. We were allowed to talk to other sections in the Pakistani society. We reported back to PM Dr Singh and he was very responsive,” Tarigami told Tribune.

He said the attempts were made by Dr Singh as PM to improve the life of people of Kashmir. “He addressed issues which haunted the cross sections of society. He started cross border trade and then dialogue with Pakistan. Through his policy on Kashmir, he has left a legacy that must be carried forward and not pushed to backside,” he said.

He said Dr Manmohan Singh took the initiative of talking to different cross sections of society in Kashmir “He has been distinguished a leader, a person who while heading PM’s office expressed clearly that Kashmir needs to be attended to with more passion, more sympathy, with more purposeful dialogue. That is why during his period one roundtable conference was held. That is unique since it was held in Srinagar under his leadership and five working groups were formed on different aspects of J&K situation—whether it is political, economical, administrative or cross border trade,” he said.

He said it was first attempt from stature of such leader—PM itself who worked for Kashmir himself.

“He insisted that instead of cross border terrorism, we need to promote cross border trade to develop in the field of economy and well-being of people on both sides of Line of Control(LoC) in Kashmir,” he said.