(Image source from: Mehbooba Mufti wants Article 370 to stay})

While speaking at the Hindustan Times  Leadership Summit at New Delhi, Peoples Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti said, "As far as article 370 is concerned, there's no fiddling with it." The feeling that "Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India has to go beyond the ownership of land," she said.

"If Kashmiris chose to be a part of democratic and secular India (in 1947), we need to be given something in return. We need to be treated special," Ms Mufti, said. "If you give someone something, to snatch it away slowly is stealing. Article 370 only strengthens the bond with India," she said.

"The BJP reiterates its stand on the Constitution provision and will discuss this with all stakeholders and remains committed to the abrogation of this article," its manifesto for the 2014 general election said.

"Whatever my father had started during Vajpayee's time and then it was taken forward by Dr Manmohan Singh, everything was put on the backburner," she said. Regarding if she had thought that PM, Modi would follow Mr Vajpayee's approach, she said: "He's coming around.

"Kashmir is looked at from the security prism. Everything becomes a security issue, we need a more humane approach," she said.

Ms Mufti said that there is no alternative to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's approach of reaching out to Pakistan. She expects PM, Modi to follow a similar approach. "That is why Ms Sushma Swaraj is going to Pakistan," she said. Ms Mufti said that the chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed wanted to take forward what has begun in the Vajpayee era to a logical conclusion.
Speaking out strongly against ISIS, she said, "ISIS is totally against the very basis of Islam. They are destroying everything that Islam holds dear. Kashmir people will never follow them."

By Premji