Editor's Note:
This is an edited transcript of the interview.

How would you think a man would feel when he's sitting on hot charcoal everyday. ---Farooq on being Chief Minister

Pakistan has never accepted Kashmir as a part of India. Kashmir's Hindu king acceded to India in October 1947.

Pakistan questions the accession. Kashmir has since remained a flashpoint in South Asia.

India has fought three wars with Pakistan involving Kashmir, and one with China.

The area is now split under the control of these three nations.

At the heart of the problem lies the fact that colonial India was partitioned on communal lines.

Kashmir, being a Hindu kingdom with a Muslim majority, had the freedom to accede to either India or Pakistan. Now with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee's impending summit meeting with Pakistan's Chief Executive General Musharraf, Kashmir is again in the spotlight.

Farooq Abdullah heads Jammu and Kashmir.

SHANKAR:
Mr Farooq Abdullah, welcome to In Conversation..

Farooq: Thank you.

SHANKAR: Well, you're sitting on the hot seat in the State of Jammu and Kashmir in India. How does it feel to be the Chief Minister now?

Farooq: How would you think a man would feel when he's sitting on hot charcoal everyday. It is not so easy and it is not so comfortable. So one has to accept it as it is and not really worry about it.

SHANKAR: Do you realistically hope that this entire region of Kashmir that you've just outlined can ever be one again?

Farooq: No. I don't see it. I don't see it, as ever been one. But I do see a better relationship between India and Pakistan. I think the territory they hold - we should accept this, that is part of Pakistan. And the territory that is with India is part of India.

SHANKAR: What about the land ceded to China?

Farooq: You see, what we feel that there's lot of land that have been taken by China in the war earlier on and India has said that, that is bone of contention between China and India. And that only when other matters are settled - the border will be settled last of all. I think the same thing we will do between India and Pakistan should be done.

rade and to meet. So that this feeling of alienation would disappear.