news details |
|
|
| Don't expect miracles from Singh-Zardari meet | | | One need not expect miracles out of the meet ing between Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and President, Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yakaterinburg. Even if the two agree to promote friendly relations nothing can be taken for granted as far as the future strategy of Islamabad towards India is concerned. Soon after the 1965 brief war the then Soviet leaders succeeded in arranging a summit between the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Pakistan President, Gen. Ayub Khan in Tashkent. As a r esult of sustained mediation by Kosygin an agreement called the Tashkent declaration was signed by Shastri and Khan. The agreement had made it mandatory for both the sides not to interfere in each others internal affairs. Has Pakistan abided by this section of the agreement ? Certainly not. Another agreement, known as the Simla Agreement, was signed in 1972 soon after the 1971 war. Under this agreement both India and Pakistan were supposed to settle their differences by peaceful; means through bilateral negotiations. Both sides will refrain from use of threat or force.LOC be respected by both sides and neither side will seek to alter it unilaterally. Also the Agreement laid emphasis on peaceful coexistence and respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty. Any conflict be resolved through peaceful means. Compare the provisions of these two agreements and the events that have taken place in the Indian subcontinent since the 1965 Tashkent declaration. Since 1988 Pakistan has launched operation Topac in Jammu and Kashmir under which it pushed militants, equipped with sophisticated weapons,into the state.These militants caused a lot of death and destruction. It is yet to call off the operation Topac which is clearly volatile of the Shimla Agreement. Because the proxy war is opposed to peaceful coexistence. It is against respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty.The operation Topac is volatile of the two agreements because it aims at altering the LOC unilaterally. The Simla Agreement provides for the two sides to prevent the organisation, assistance or encouragement of any acts detrimental to the maintenance of peace and harmonious relations. And if anyone is not prepared to blame Pakistan for having violated the spirit of the Tashkent and Simla Declarations one needs to keep in view the Kargil Conflict of 1999. Men of Pak regular Army had sneaked into the unmanned Kargil heights and their purpose was to alter the LOC in the mountainous belt of Ladakh. Again a violation of the Simla Agreement. That India had been favouring dialogue with Pakistan for resolving bilateral problems is no longer a secret. And the covert and overt hurdles created by Islamabad in the fruitful culmination of the talks because it continued to use its soil for exporting terrorism to Jammu and Kashmir and other Indian states and cities. Hence Delhi is right when it has announced that talks will be resumed only when Islamabad took steps to check terrorist activities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
