Peace on track, progress priority, not 145;show 038; slogans146;: Azad

Caught in an unenviable position where his 60 days have to measure up to three-year-long 8216;8216;healing touch8217;8217; of an erstwhi...

Caught in an unenviable position where his 60 days have to measure up to three-year-long 8216;8216;healing touch8217;8217; of an erstwhile chief minister of the same Congress-PDP coalition government, Ghulam Nabi Azad insists that the peace initiatives have not 8216;8216;slowed down8217;8217; under his chief ministership, but the thrust has shifted from 8216;8216;show and slogans8217;8217; to infrastructure development.

Refuting the perception that there has been a change of heart along with the change at the helm in Jammu and Kashmir8212;from the PDP8217;s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to Congress8217; Azad8212;the latter said, 8216;8216;While I8217;m totally in favour of talks with India and Pakistan for a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue acceptable to all three regions of the state8212; Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh8212;till such time we cannot waste our time in slogan shouting and political rhetoric.8217;8217;

Citing the fact that nearly five points on the LoC were opened up without waiting for the Muzaffarbad-Srinagar roadlink to become operational after the devastating earthquake in the last two months, he said that quake resources were mobilised for relief operations to PoK, but 8216;8216;the only difference was the thrust was not on show and cross-border politics of playing with the people8217;s sentiments, but quietly providing the required infrastructure for further development.8217;8217;

Without directly criticising his predecessor and the compulsions of regional parties like PDP or National Conference, Azad hinted at it: 8216;8216;Development cannot wait for the peace process to come through. In the past 58 years number of attempts were made, number of agreements took place between India and Pakistan, but the process is still on8230;Should we sit back?8217;8217;

In the same breath he added that a solution to the problem would probably not take more than two years: 8216;8216;In a dynamic world where economy is changing so fast, any state that does not keep pace will be left behind.8217;8217;

With his personal proximity to the National Conference8217;s Farooq Abdullah fuelling speculations of a re-alliance of political forces in the state and strained relations with the present coalition partner PDP surfacing now and then, Azad insists that he would rather carry along all political parties together, 8216;8216;which includes the BJP8217;8217;, rather than be isolated in the efforts to reconstruct the state.

8216;8216;No single party or coalition can bring normalcy in the state. When we are getting parties outside mainstream politics involved in dialogue, how can we ignore those within the democratic set-up!8217;8217; Azad adds.