Sky’s the limit on J&K autonomy: Govt

‘‘When I suggested six months ago that we will present the Sino-Indian model before Pakistan, people expressed reservations. But I am happy to tell you today that starting with President Musharraf, everybody has said they are not unifocal. Even yesterday, they (Aziz and his delegates) told our Commerce Minister that they were prepared for talks on all issues,’’ Singh said at a media interaction to list achievements of the Government’s foreign policy.

By emphasising on the Sino-Indian model, Singh was essentially trying to present a case for continuing progress in areas, largely economic, where both countries stood to gain. Contentious issues could be dealt with separately.

This is different from the composite dialogue model with Pakistan. The latter identifies eight outstanding issues on which talks are held at agreed levels and one round is completed only after a cycle of these meetings are over. It provides a mechanism that seeks to address all issues in a ‘‘substantive’’ and ‘‘integrated’’ manner.

Pakistan has in the past rejected such suggestions but Singh indicated that the Government was open to examining options for more autonomy to J&K.

While there could be no more partition on religious lines or any redrawing of maps, Singh said ‘‘sky is the limit’’ when it came to regional autonomy. This would, however, have to be done within the parameters of Parliament resolutions and any solution on Kashmir will require a great deal of ‘‘patience, hardwork, goodwill and trust’’.

Singh said India will be ready to operationalise the Khokrapar-Munabao rail service by October 2 next year. This was conveyed by Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to the Pakistan delegation yesterday.

The hallmark of the Government’s foreign policy, Singh said, had been ‘‘consistency in approach’’ in contrast to the ‘‘event-based’’ efforts of the NDA government.