Srinagar, Aug 20: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Karra on Thursday rejected US Ambassador Sergio Gor’s remarks describing Jammu and Kashmir as “an important part of India”, saying the region has always been an integral part of the country and does not need to be told about its strategic importance.
Reacting to Gor’s remarks, Karra said, “I don’t know why should he have said this. I mean Jammu and Kashmir has been integral part of India, is integral and it will remain integral.”
He said the significance being attached to Jammu and Kashmir by the US envoy reflected what he described as the failure of the present dispensation.
“What importance he is trying to give to Jammu and Kashmir, I think that is the failure of the present dispensation,” Karra said.
The Congress leader also criticised what he described as increasing third-party intervention in India’s affairs, saying the country had traditionally opposed such involvement after the 1971 war and the Shimla Agreement.
“India has never, especially after 1971, this Shimla Agreement, after that none of the countries have to have third-party intervention,” he said.
“But it is only during this regime, BJP’s regime, that we are seeing third-party interventions. Many decisions are being forced upon us,” Karra added.
He alleged that issues without international ramifications were also being subjected to external intervention.
“Many such things which have no international ramifications, like taxation and other things, are being imposed upon us. Today India, under such intervention, seems to be going back to the colonial style of functioning,” he said.
Karra said Jammu and Kashmir was strategically important because of its geographical location and its proximity to several countries.
“As far as the Congress party is concerned, for us, of course, Jammu and Kashmir is an important state in India because of the strategic position, geographical strategic position,” he said.
“So we don’t need to know this thing as if it is for the first time that we have been told that we are important. Yes, strategically we have always been important,” he added.
Referring to the region’s geopolitical location, Karra said, “We have many countries around us and a couple of them very hostile.”
He also cautioned against attempts to use Jammu and Kashmir as a pretext for pursuing broader foreign-policy objectives.
“If anyone has this thing in mind that they would fix their guns on our shoulders under different pretexts, that is not acceptable to us as far as our foreign policy is concerned,” Karra said.
Asked about Pakistan lodging an official complaint over Gor’s remarks, Karra said he did not have the mandate to comment on the matter as state Congress president.
“Well, that is their internal matter. As Congress president of a state, I don’t have mandate for speaking on that,” he said.
However, he reiterated the Congress position on Jammu and Kashmir. “I can say that Congress stand is stated that Jammu and Kashmir is an important place, yes, strategically, and it has remained integral part of India. It is integral part of India and it shall remain to be integral part of India,” Karra said.
