Kavinder Gupta says ready to talk with terrorists

Jammu, (ET): Insanity seems to have made BJP headquarters in Jammu its permanent home as no single day passes when senior as well as junior leaders of the party do not come up with a bizarre claim or a statement.
A jaw dropping statement was issued by none other than a senior leader of the party and former deputy chief minister of J&K Kavinder Gupta that party would have no objection over talking to militants and separatists under the constitution. He even stated that the party would talk to ultras to resolve the Kashmir issue.
This is perhaps for the first time that any such statement about party’s willingness to talk to militants has been issued by the BJP. “”BJP will talk to Hurriyat within Constitution. He said BJP is open to talks with separatists in Kashmir as part of efforts to resolve the problems in the state but discussions would need to be within the constitutional frame,” he was quoted as having said.
Meanwhile, the statement has come merely days after the BJP’s old ally PDP declared militants as sons of soil and pitched for dialogue with them.
“Right from the time I came into politics in 1996, I have been saying that local militants are sons of the soil and our maximum efforts should be to save them because they are assets,” former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in Anantnag on January 15, this year.
“Right now, talks should be held with Pakistan and separatists. Similarly, the militant leadership should also be talked to as it is they who have the guns and only they can end the gun culture,” Mehbooba said at that time.
Now, two weeks later, Gupta has repeated the same words and declared that the central government led by the BJP wouldn’t have any hesitation in taking to the militants and the separatists. “Has the BJP leadership forgotten that the militants have been killing our soldiers.
Has the BJP forgotten that it is the Hurriyat which is being paid by the Pakistan and keeps on spitting venom against India. Talking with separatists means you agree that they have a case worth to be discussed. In other words, it means that under the constitution even if they want rigorous 370 and 35-A then BJP will accept the demand. These questions have to be answered by the BJP,” said a noted social activist based in Jammu.
Meanwhile, what has raised the eyebrows is that the BJP ahead of polls seems to be striving to stay in good books of the PDP. The BJP leader who on Monday pitched for talks with militants also held Congress and National Conference responsible for the mess in Jammu and Kashmir but didn’t mention PDP anywhere. “Kashmir is on fire because of Congress and National Conference”.
He said the Kashmir problem is the Congress’s legacy, adding “now instead of learning from its past mistakes, the Congress wants to precipitate a crisis for this country,” the BJP leader said