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| Jammu & Kashmir is not Kosovo | | Mirwaiz's break-India solution | | Neha
JAMMU, Apr 3: Self-styled chairman of APHC-M Mirwaiz Umar Farooq the other day spoke on behalf of the entire population of the state and demanded Kosovo-type solution to the so-called Kashmir problem. "The lasting solution of Kashmir issue is extremely significant as far as the stability of the South Asian region as concerned. To secure the future of millions of people living in the South Asia, there is a need to solve Kashmir issue on urgent basis," he said while addressing on phone an international conference, "Kashmir: Challenges and Prospects". The conference was organized by a Pakistan-based think tank, Muslim Institute, in Islamabad. "1.5 crore residents of the State should be given the right to exercise their political future...The role of international community is quite important since they can remove the obstacles and problems coming in the way of right to self determination. When the world community can play an active role in solving Kosovo, Sudan and East Timor like issue, why not the same with Kashmir? The international community should initiate serious steps to solve the dispute for once and all," he, also, among other things, said.
The region of Kosovo is in the Balkan Peninsula of Southeastern Europe. Its political status is disputed, notwithstanding the fact that it was recognized as a sovereign state by 107 UN member states only recently. After a failure to produce results from non-violent resistance to Serbian rule from 1990, and an armed struggle by the Albanians from 1997 to 1999, NATO launched a 78-day assault on FR Yugoslavia to end the war in Kosovo. In 1999 the UN through UNMIK began overseeing the administration of the province after a (UNSC) resolution. On 17 February 2008 Kosovo Parliament declared independence as the "Republic of Kosovo", which has received recognition from some sovereign states. With the Brussels agreement Serbia recognized the secession of Kosovo and its autonomy from Serbia but did not formally recognize it as an independent country. Under the Brussels Agreement, public institutions in Kosovo are operated by the Pristina Government, rather than Belgrade. The Republic of Kosovo is a member of the International Monetary Fund, World bank, International Road and Transport Union, Regional Cooperation Council, Council of Europe Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Within the European Union, 23 of 28 members have recognized the Republic of Kosovo. The countries like Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain in the European Union have not recognized Kosovo. This is the short history of Kosovo.
This part of Jammu & Kashmir just cannot be equated with Kosovo. For, Jammu & Kashmir acceded to the Indian Dominion on October 26, 1947 in terms of constitutional law on the subject like all other 560-odd princely states. The Maharaja of the state alone had the authority under the Indian Independence act of 1947 to take a decision on the political future of his state and he took the decision in favour of India. The only part of Jammu & Kashmir which is a disputed region is what we call Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir, including the so-called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan region. Even the UN has implicitly recognized the Indian sovereignty over the "Azad Kashmir" and Gilgit-Baltistan in the sense that it asked Pakistan in 1948 to vacate the aggression and asked India to send its troops to the areas to be vacated by Pakistan to maintain law and order there. Not just this, the Indian Constitution and the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir unequivocally say that Jammu & Kashmir is and shall ever remain an integral part of India. This is a hard reality and only fools can overlook it.
Mirwaiz talked about 1,5 crore people? Who authorized him to speak to speak for Jammu and Ladakh, and even for all the people of Kashmir? The people of Jammu and Ladakh have not given a mandate to any Kashmiri leader to speak for them. They are the master of their own destiny and it is their commitment to work and die for India, leave aside a few disgruntled elements here and there. Similarly, not all the Kashmiris are the followers of Mirwaiz. Only a handful of fanatics inghabiting the Jamia Masjid area in Srinagar follows him. The Kashmiri Hindus, the Kashmiri Sikhs, the Pathowari-speaking Muslims, the Shiite Muslims and the tribal Gujjars and Bakerwals are also vehemently opposed not only to Mirwaiz but also to Geelani, Yasin Malik and similar other extremists and separatists. The fact is that the likes of Mirwaiz represent only a minority view. He and others of his ilk must remember that the Indian nation shall never allow another communal partition of the country. Gone are the days when the Congress and the Muslim worked in tandem with the British to cause communal partition of India to create Pakistan. |
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