SECTION 3 - (CHAPTER 15)

PAK INFILTRATION IN KASHMIR

Lok Sabha on 30 November, 1967

The motion moved by Shri Prakash Vir Shastri was, really speaking, connected with the situation arising out of the serious threat to national security posed by the recent influx of infiltrators into Kashmir. But on the basis of this Motion, naturally this discussion covered a very wide area. It was quite useful to know the views of all the most important parties and also some important leaders such as Dada Kripalani.

I do not propose to reply to all the points raised because it is difficult to reply to them in a small debate like this in a very short speech. The basic Point I would like to touch upon concerns some of the issued raised by Shri Prakash Vir Shastri and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed. The first question Shri Shastri asked me was what have I done or what is being done in regard to some of the assurances I gave when I visited Kashmir during the Pandits’ agitation ? I had assured him on two or three important points. One was that the question of excesses committed by the police during the agitation should be inquired into by an officer to be nominated by me from here. I would like to tell the House that the Director of the CBI, Shri Kohli, has been nominated by me, and the nomination has been accepted by the Chief Minister of Kashmir, to go into this question of police excesses during the agitation.

The other point was that there were certain grievances of the Pandits. On the question of imbalances, economic imbalance, imbalances in employment etc. It was necessary that some sort of a high power committee should go into them. It is now common knowledge that a Committee under the chairmanship of Shri Gajendragadkar has been appointed to be assisted by two other colleagues of his, which will go into this question. Naturally, they will go into the question of the imbalances in development, economic questions and so on. People with the experience of Justice Gajendragadkar, Shri Shankar Prasad and Shri Tyabji are on the Committee and I think the recommendations made by this Committee will be a very useful document both for the Government of Kashmir and also for public opinion in India as a whole. These were the two basic issues on which I gave an assurance and this has been acted upon.

Naturally, I do not want to go into the question of the Hindu girl being married to a Muslim gentleman because it is sub-judice.

... I would like to mention another aspect, and that is about elections that the hon. Member mentioned. Shri Bakshi was not then a Member of Parliament, but, as an old colleague, he wrote to me about it, and naturally I conveyed our feelings about it, our thinking about it, to the Chief Minister of Kashmir. This whole question is now in a way before the tribunals, before the High Court Judges, because most of these matters are the subject matter of election petitions.