Jammu,
Giving a clear message to the Valley-based mainstream parties and separatist groups, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the people of Jammu and Kashmir had already decided their destiny.

Mehbooba said J&K had rejected the two-nation theory based on religion in 1947 to become part of secular India. “I want to put it on record that whatever the people of Jammu and Kashmir will get, they will get it only from India and nowhere else. This is my message to the mainstream parties and others,” she said without elaborating who ‘others’ were.

“J&K should become a bridge of peace between India and Pakistan to restore lasting peace in the subcontinent,” she said.

In an obvious reference to the accession of J&K with the Indian Union, she said the only Muslim-majority state of the country had decided to join secular India and had become its crown.

Emphasising the need to maintain the sanctity of the Indian and J&K Constitutions, she said: “Ours is the most empowered Assembly in the country. The goods and services tax was implemented in the entire nation at once, except Jammu and Kashmir, where it was implemented only after a proper debate in the Assembly.”

She said a separate flag, residuary powers and separate constitution made the J&K Assembly highly empowered.

In her 48-minute reply on the Governor’s Address, Mehbooba admitted that the situation was fragile in the Valley and emphasised the need to strengthen the political process to establish lasting peace.

“Lasting peace cannot be established by killing militants only. When one local militant is killed, another from the same area picks up gun. It is a vicious circle which we have to break by convincing local youth to shun violence and live a peaceful life,” she said. She expressed satisfaction that nowadays parents were directly appealing to their children, who had picked up gun, to join the mainstream.

“We have assured parents that agencies would not harass any local militant who will return to the mainstream,” she said, exuding confidence that Aligarh Muslim University PhD scholar from Kupwara Manaan Bashir Wani will come back.

Reiterating her demand of initiating a dialogue with Pakistan, she said: “We cannot interfere in the foreign policy of the country but the Union Government must think that people of J&K always bear the maximum brunt of the hostility between India and Pakistan.”