Kashmiri separatists need to be dealt with a heavy hand: BJP

Taking Fridays demand of nationalizing the route of the Amarnath yatra forward on Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) once again reiterated and declared that no part of India would be allowed to secede, whether it was in the opposition or, in power.

Bangalore, Sept.13 : Taking Friday's demand of "nationalizing the route of the Amarnath yatra" forward on Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) once again reiterated and declared that no part of India would be allowed to secede, whether it was in the opposition or, in power.

The message coming through its political resolution here today on developments in Jammu and Kashmir, was - deal with separatist elements in the Kashmir Valley and their patrons across the border with a "very heavy hand".

If on Friday, BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution (conferring special status on Kashmir) needed revisiting in the light of recent controversies in the state, on Saturday, the party described the Amarnath forest land row as "a conflict between the separatist and the nationalist."

It said that: "It is a matter of assurance that the nationalist forces could force the reversal of the surrender (of forest land) before the separatist," and blamed the UPA Government for promoting a "new disturbing rise to separatist politics" in Jammu and Kashmir.

Accusing the UPA Government of "gross indifference and ineptitude", the BJP political resolution said that the famous Amarnath Yatra has been going since time immemorial, and therefore for the Centre not to take the forest land row issue with the seriousness that it deserved, showed that the Kashmir Valley represented "the single largest failure of secularism in India since independence."

"Today, the entire concept of Kashmiriyat unfortunately, has been overtaken by a theocratic movement in the Kashmir Valley with sponsorship from across the border," the resolution further said.

"The cost to the country has been enormous both in terms of economic cost and social consequences. Who was correct on Kashmir Jawahar Lal Nehru or, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee - this judgement is now awaited," the resolution said.

"No live nation squanders away its territory. It is an India of 2008 and not of 1947. Nations States are not built up by compounding the mistakes of history," the BJP said.

ANI