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| ‘Check unbridled licence to sedition’ | | ‘Intellectuals’ warned against questioning Kashmir’s integration | | Early Times Report
Jammu | Sept 18
A group of country’s leading intellectuals, media persons, policy experts, retired bureaucrats and intelligence officers have warned the “too much liberal intellectuals and media persons” against questioning Kashmir’s integration with India.
Noting that freedom of expression is supreme but it should not be misused to wage and intellectual war against the country. They observed that when the enemy is finding it difficult to wage a military war against the country, the intelligentsia is serving the same purpose.
Attacking "stray voices" in the media for questioning the expediency of retaining Jammu and Kashmir as a part of India, a group of top retired defence service officers and civil servants said today that they were playing into the hands of the enemies of the nation.
Freedom of expression did not mean "unbridled licence to flout the law of the land by airing or fanning seditious views," the group said in a joint statement after a seminar in New Delhi today.
The group included former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarthy, former Intelligence Bureau Director Ajit Doval, former union home secretary Anil Baijal, former Air Chief SP Tyagi, former secretary in External Affairs Ministry Rajiv Sikri, Chairman of Essel Group Subash Chandra, Former Director General of NSG Ved Marwah and noted journalist MJ Akbar.
"It is distressing indeed alarming that these seditious views which question India's unity and integrity are being freely aired by a section of intelligentsia," the statement said, adding that it was regrettable that the print and electronic media are giving undue space and prominence to these views.
The group urged the media to exercise restraint and show responsibility to the larger national interest.
"We call upon the intelligentsia that has the power to share public opinion to use the power with wisdom and maturity," the group stated.
"Kashmir is an inalienable element of India's civilisational identity and symbolises the fundamental principles on which the modern Indian state has been built," the group said.
The statement was released at a joint news conference of the signatories to the letter which also included noted journalist M J Akbar.
"India cannot and must not give any signal that could be misinterpreted to mean that its national resolve to preserve its unity and integrity is crumbling," it said.
The group said that in the absence of military might psychological warfare is the weapon of choice of a devious adversary to attempt to break national will.
The statement said the legal vailidity of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India is unquestionable and was in accordance with the popular will. "There is no basis on which any change in political status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir could be considered," Parthasarathy emphasised.
Stating that India has successfully overcome all secessionist threats faced by it, the statement said no responsible government can ever compromise the country"s territorial integrity by even contemplating the secession of Kashmir.
"This is not a trifling issue. If the Indian State is seen as weak enough to let Kashmir go, other states and disaffected groups within India will only get emboldened, leading to the unraveling of India," the statement said.
When asked about controlling "seditious views", the group members ruled out any censorship by the government and called on the intelligentsia to use wisdom while giving space to such views.
The group said that as borders in the plains of northern India are not defensible, Kashmir is vital for the country's security.
"Communal harmony could be seriously compromised. Detractors of secular, democratic India tend to forget that the overwhelming majority of Indian Muslims, who constitute over 15 per cent of population, has absolutely no sympathy for the partisan few who still fan a tired idea called seccession," it said.
The group called upon people of the country and all political parties to raise their voices and come out unambiguously against secessionism in any form whatsoever.
The group also referred to an unanimous Parliament resolution in 1994 to the effect that "the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means."
The resolution had also stated "Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which they have occupied through aggression."
Later talking to media, former IB chief Ajit Doval demanded a National Data Bank where details of all the terrorists movement and their modus operandi could be stored.
"There is lot of information about the movement of terrorists with different state police. All this needs to be streamlined and put together," said Doval. |
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