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| Need to review foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan | | UPA and Jammu & Kashmir | | Neha
JAMMU, Apr 8: Jammu & Kashmir acceded to India in October 1947 in terms of the constitutional law on the subject, but the powers-that-be in New Delhi have been muddying the Indian waters in the Valley in their desperate bid to pander to separatists, communalists and votaries of greater autonomy ever since then. The situation worsened all the more during the past ten years with Sonia Gandhi at the helm of affairs and directing the Indian Foreign office and Kashmir policy. During this period, an impression went down that the UPA didn't consider Jammu & Kashmir an integral of India and it wanted to barter the sovereign interests to please and appease Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists.
One can refer to here several instances to prove that the UPA complicated matters in Jammu & Kashmir during the past ten years. But a reference here to just a few of them would be in order. One: In 2004 May, Foreign Minister K Natwar Singh told BBC, London, that "we (UPA Government) are prepared to redraw the political map of India to resolve the Kashmir issue", thus indicating the government's intention to barter the country's sovereign interests to pander to Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists and communalists. Two: In June 2004, Home Minister Shivraj Patil told BBC, London, that "Our government (read UPA Government) has decided to reward the moderate militants", thus giving a dangerous legitimacy to the cult of gun. Three: On February 25, 2006, PM Manmohan Singh made common cause with the votaries of greater autonomy/semi-independence and said: "There is the need to evolve a consensus on greater autonomy and self-rule". He made this outrageous suggestion much to the chagrin of the people of Jammu and Ladakh. Four: On March 29, 2006, the state's executive head endorsed the former Pak President Gen Pervez Musharraf's five point Kashmir formula and said in a seminar in the University of Jammu that "there should be India and Pakistan joint control over the state's waters, power projects, agriculture, sericulture, tourism, forestry and environment" and he made this pro-Pak statement a day after the then State Governor Lt Gen S K Sinha tore into the UPA Government saying it had virtually stopped describing Jammu & Kashmir an integral part of India. Five: A Union Minister on several occasions spoke the language of Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists and, like them, described Jammu & Kashmir a 'trilateral" issue between India, Pakistan and Kashmir.
There should be Srinagar-New Delhi axis, Srinagar-Islamabad axis and New Delhi-Islamabad axis, he repeatedly said as Union Minister, thus sharing the Pakistani view that Jammu & Kashmir was a disputed region and Pakistan was a party to the Kashmir issue. Six: The UPA Government didn't dismiss the government of Omar Abdullah on March 25, 2013, when NC working president and CM mocked the Indian Parliament on the Floor of the Assembly saying "by repeating the words atoot ang (integral part) you cannot change the political status of Kashmir". This indicated that the UPA Government and the NC were on the same side as far as their stand on Jammu & Kashmir was concerned. Seven: The Home Minister said in Kashmir in 2007 that "Kashmir is a unique problem that needs a unique solution and the solutions which are applicable to other states of the Union cannot be replicated in Jammu & Kashmir".
Eight: The UPA Government didn't dismiss the state Government on October 6, 2007, when CM Omar Abdullah said on the floor of the assembly that Jammu & Kashmir had only acceded to India and not merged with it. On the contrary, the then Foreign Minister and Home Minister sided with Omar Abdullah, thus creating serious doubts in the minds of the international community about the political status of the state.
What does all this suggest? It suggests that the powers-that-be in New Delhi do not really consider the state as an integral part of the country like other states of the Union. This approach has to be discarded as the bulk of population of the state is for the state's full integration with India. In other words, what is needed is a review of the Indian foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan and Jammu & Kashmir. A review has become all the more imperative considering the naked interference by Pakistan in the internal affairs of India and the provocative statements being made by Kashmiri separatists.
Remember, only a couple of days ago, Kashmiri separatists met with the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi to discuss what should be done to provoke anti-India explosions in the Valley. |
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