What has your approach gained: Governor to separatists

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra on Wednesday made a fervent appeal to separatists and other hostile sections of the society without actually naming them to ponder over the miseries the years of turmoil in the State have brought in the lives of its people.

He said, “Today, yet once again, I appeal to the leaders of all the political parties in our State, and to all those at the helm of various social, cultural, religious and other influential organisations, to ponder most seriously over what exactly has been gained from the endless turmoil, the continuing human and economic losses and the sufferings which our people have been undergoing in the past several decades”.

Mr Vohra, who was speaking at an Independence Day function here, added, “It also needs to be recognised that the activities of all those whose sole objective has been to stoke unrest have resulted only in branding our State with a negative profile which has discouraged tourism, external investments and adversely affected the economic advancement of the state”.

He asserted that the pursuit of divisive and confrontationist approaches can never lead to the resolution of any of the problems faced by the state. “As we have seen for ourselves, such approaches have only generated vested interests which have fractured our society and severely damaged our centuries old syncretic values and traditions,” he said.

Mr Vohra said that in order to pull the state and its people out of the prevailing environment of “suspicion, fear, distrust and growing cynicism” it is of crucial importance that all the stakeholders — whatever be their political convictions or religious ideologies — close ranks and “muster the courage to accept that our problems can be resolved only through dialogue and discussion and by making sustained sincere efforts towards promoting reconciliation and communal harmony”.