Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 28: Kashmir is the most prosperous region in the world. It is also politically very powerful in the country, as it has its own constitution and flag and the residuary powers, including power of taxation. It is politically very powerful in the sense that the office of the Chief Minister has become its sole preserve since accession, as also in the sense that it controls the civil secretariat and almost all political, administrative, financial and social institutions. Besides, Kashmir has been exploiting Jammu and Ladakh to the hilt with the Union Government and the entire Indian political class with Kashmir and at its back and call.
Still the Kashmiri leaders of all hues bat for Pakistan, a state no country in the world really appreciates for reasons not really difficult to fathom. Some even want to join Pakistan and these some also include those who have been participating in the current violent movement in the Valley.
Their urge for merging Kashmir with Pakistan is very intriguing. It appears, they are not aware of the state of state of Pakistan. If not, they must find time out of their stone-pelting busy schedules to study the state of affairs in Pakistan, as also the plight of the poor in that Islamic state. There is no need for them to study Pakistan since its inception in August 1947. They should look at the Pakistani papers of August 26, including Dawn, and they would know that Pakistan, which is also on the brink of disintegration, is a hell on earth where the poor have no place; where they are destined to serve only the rich and suffer torture and digest humiliations.
Only on August 26, senator of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz party, Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar, openly and in a most brazen manner said that the "poor are born in Pakistan to serve the rich".
"The poor of this country will never get to decide their own fate…If everyone were to become wealthy, there would be no one to grow wheat or to work as labourers. This is a system created by God and he has made some people rich and others poor and we should not interfere in this system," he said in a Senate Committee meeting.
He not only held is ground firmly, but further said claimed that "Once in China all people were considered equal, which did not work out well".
The Kashmiri Muslims and their leaders would do well eschew the idea of joining Pakistan. Even otherwise, they have no other option but stay put in Kashmir because no political party in India will ever allow Kashmir to secede. Besides, the Indian Constitution itself says that the political map of India cannot be changed. |
