JAMMU Kashmir Vichar Manch Delhi demanded immediate expulsion of Dilip Padgaonkar from the team of J&K interlocutors. In a press statement issued on July 21 the Manch said that in case Padgaonkar refuses to step down, the Prime Minister must force him out. “Jammu & Kashmir is a very sensitive issue and has already drained much of our resources and we cannot afford any leniency on this count. The Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch calls for a detailed probe into the activities and funding of all such activists, who have figured in the list of ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai, arrested by FBI in USA,” the press statement said.
“Nation is shocked to see the prominent names, who have been in Fai circuit. Fai was a very eminent anti-India, anti-Kashmir voice and was leading Pakistan’s anti-India propaganda machinery in USA. That Fai was using a lot of money and other resources to influence the opinion about Kashmir and he used literature and publicity material generated by the ISI is now in open. Fai has been in this business for around 25years and was successful to greater extent in creating anti-India view in USA including the government of that country. Jammu & Kashmir police also claims that Fai’s name figured in several cases in India. The group’s strategy was to offset the Indian position by targeting members of the Congressional committees that focus on foreign affairs with private briefings and events, staging activities that would draw media attention,” Vichar Manch president Shri Ajay Bharati said in the statement.
Shri Bharati further said that anti-India attitude of Pakistan and its notorious spy agency ISI is expected, but what is shocking is the name of prominent Indians who have been roped in by them. “Celebrated journalists, jurists and academicians have been enjoying the hospitality of this rabid anti-India ISI agent attending his conferences travelling executive class and staying in luxury hotels. Never did these learned people try to understand why was someone spending such huge money on them, nor did they disassociate from the anti-India resolutions adopted usually on the conclusion of such conferences. More outrageous is the fact that some of these ‘eminent’ Indians continue to hold very sensitive posts. Dilip Padgaonkar for example is heading the Prime Minster’s team of interlocutors on J&K. With his name in the list of guests of Fai, he has lost the moral authority to hold on that responsibility. He can no more be expected to hold an independent opinion, at least till the time he comes clean. It is possible that ISI manages to elicit a report in their favour from the team of interlocutors headed by a person who has come under cloud,” the statement said.
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