Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti states that contentious Kashmir dispute could best be resolved through former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s policy of accommodating Kashmiris and giving Pakistan a role in the solution

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Mufti indicated there could not be a solution to the Kashmir issue that involved any change of borders or exchange of territory.
The 56-year-old politician, who plays a key behind-the-scenes role in the BJP-PDP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, ruled out the possibility of the Islamic State making inroads in the restive state, saying its actions were the antithesis of the Sufi Islam practised in the region.
“Ultimately there is no alternative to Vajpayee’s policy of reaching out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir while also accommodating Pakistan somewhere,” she said while talking of her father and chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue.
“It’s not about giving Kashmir to anybody - you can’t do that,” Mufti said. Her father, she said, wanted to “take the Vajpayee process to its logical conclusion”.
“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. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she pointed out, had “often been saying he wants to follow Vajpayee’s policy on Kashmir”.

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