Rajkot: Former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader, P. Chidambaram said that the central government must consider areas to give autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.

Chidambaram said that the Jammu and Kashmir will remain part of India but will have larger powers as promised under article 370.

Chidambaram was speaking in Rajkot on the ‘State of the Economy’ in poll bound state of Gujarat.

“India must consider areas to give autonomy to J&K. It’ll remain part of India but will have larger powers as promised under Art 370,” P Chidamabaram said.

He further said that when people in Kashmir ask for ‘Azadi’ most people want autonomy.

“My interactions in J&K led me to the conclusion that when they ask for ‘Azadi’, most people want autonomy,” he said.

Pertinently, the central government has appointed Dineshwar Sharma as interlocutor for talks in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharma yesterday said that his biggest challenge and the top priority in Kashmir was to deradicalize Kashmiri youth and militants and prevent it from turning into a ‘Syria of India’.

Speaking to the media in New Delhi yesterday, Sharma said he is personally pained to see the path Kashmiris, particularly youth, have chosen that would only destroy the society.

Meanwhile, a member of the former Jammu and Kashmir Interlocutors Group yesterday said that the 2016 unrest may not have emerged, had the Congress government implemented their recommendations.

Academician Radha Kumar, who was part of J&K Interlocutors Group that submitted a report on the reasons behind that violence and ways to prevent its recurrence, believes that Congress party lost an opportunity by ignoring the group’s recommendations when the UPA was in the power at the centre.

“The Congress party lost an opportunity by not implementing recommendations of our group. Had the Congress party implemented our recommendations, the situation would have been different today in Kashmir and the 2016 unrest may not have happened,” Radha said.

Radha Kumar was appointed interlocutor by the UPA government when P. Chidambaram was Union Home minister.

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