‘Since when does hurting the collective conscience become a crime for hanging?’

What do you mean when you say that Indo-Pak dialogue ‘must not only be uninterrupted but uninterruptable’? 
What I mean is we should have a machinery which says whatever are the problems between India and Pakistan, we should decide in advance that we will continue to talk. My own example of that is why we don’t put a conference table across the Wagah border so that the Pakistani delegation does not have to leave Pakistan and the Indian delegation doesn’t have to leave India. That will mean that neither side will call off the talks. They are bound to take place. We should determine a date in advance, say every Thursday or Saturday. Some calendar determined in advance and no side should stop the other from raising any issue. So Indian side can give notice one week in advance about the subjects to be raised and Pakistani side does the same. And in the previous round we decide what is the common subject we are going to take up so that all subjects are discussed. They don’t have to make any special arrangements. There should be special envoys on both sides whose advisors may change. And they can meet according to their schedule until and unless they find a solution.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently said that on the issue of Chinese incursion the response of GOI has not been tough. ‘We are adopting tough posturing – we are trying to resolve the issue by sitting across the table – this is calm as if nothing has happened,’ he said.  He believes that the GOI response to Chinese incursion should be tough and on the same terms as in the case of Pakistan. When it comes to Pakistan media whips up a frenzy and the government response is aggressive, unlike in the recent Chinese incursion issue?
Please tell Omar Abdullah to distinguish between media and the government of India. They are not the same as usually pitted against each other. I think the attitude that Salman Khurshid took at the time of the beheading of those soldiers was exactly as sober, exactly as restrained in the face of media frenzy as his attitude today is with respect to the Chinese incursion where these NDTVs and Arnab Goswamis’ are chasing ratings. I think it is very, very unfortunate that television channels have rather become diplomatic channels. These people always kick up a fuss because that is their breaking news and TRPs. The Television media is harming the working of normal diplomacy. Also it is harming the working of normal Parliament. The same Ravi Shakar Prasad, who won’t talk to me in parliament, is ready to talk to me on a television channel. Why do they need to make TV the forum of our democracy instead of Parliament? From Monday till Friday when our Parliament was in session we have not had one minute of business. I think the media merely by being there is playing a very negative role because it gives the opportunity to those who do not wish to give a reasoned, sensible, step by step moderated approach an opportunity. We are described as cowards; we are described as goats in front of the dragger. That’s rubbish. We are taking a very mature approach and that is the right one to take.

Centrally sponsored schemes like NREGA, PMRP and PMGSY have been marred by ‘corruption’ in J&K when it comes to their implementation on ground and the benefits don’t percolate down to the grassroots. Why have these schemes failed at the implementation stage?
All over India, including J&K, until and unless the Panchayats become the machinery for last delivery to the people, the present disastrous situation will continue. In the last twenty years India has zoomed to the second position in the world in terms of GDP growth rates. Even today when our growth rate has fallen to well below 6 percent, we are still the second fastest growing economy in the world. But although the expenditure on social sector and anti-poverty programs has been increased by 25 times, we still remain at almost the same place in the UN Development Index. And the basic reason is that so long as last line delivery is entrusted to the bureaucracy, it won’t happen. As Rajiv Ghandi said not even 15 paisa in the rupee will reach the people. But if you put the Panchayats and make the Panchayat responsible at the gram sabha, you will find a revolution. People will say ‘yae mera painsa hai’. And if it is their money, they will insist on it being spent properly. Laken yae tera paisa hai, aur woe bus bikhari hai! Their own elected representative - they will say to them that they voted for them and if they don’t work for them, they won’t vote for them again.

How do you see the recent killings of Panchayat representatives? The state government has said that they can’t provide security to all Panches and Sarpanches.
If you had empowered them, if you had truly allowed them do their function, I don’t think they would have been the target of as much killing as is happening today. Don’t forget that the threat of killing anybody who stood or the threat of anybody who voted was exactly as great two years ago as it to the elected Sarpanches today. And yet bravely people stood, voted and no militant had the himat to kill anybody.   It is now that the Sarpanches are complaining that have been not been given any authority and any finances that killings are taking place.
The killings are not entirely because they have been elected. I think it is because, having being elected, they have been denigrated by not giving enough power to them. Ninety percent of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s security doesn’t come from those guys around him. It comes from his standing in the society, it comes from his prestige. So please make the Sarpanch the chief minister of his village.
How do you view the 2014 elections in the state? Even the mainstream political parties here are saying that time for seeking vote for biji, sadak and pani is over—and that it is time to resolve the Kashmir dispute?
It seems to me that any political party, if it sincerely promises power to the people through the Panchayats, I don’t see why people will vote against them.