news details |
|
|
| Kashmir: India facing isolation at international level | | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 6: the United States, China and a small country like Finland are not the only countries which are poking their dirty noses in the internal affairs of India. There are hosts of other countries which, too, are interfering in the internal affairs of India and giving overt and covert support to Islamabad on the Kashmir issue. The United Kingdom and even Maldives have been asking India to start talks with Pakistan in order to settle the Kashmir issue.
Reacting to the interference of London and Maldives in the Indian affairs, as also to how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was treated at Thimpu, former Ambassador Rajiv Dogra expressed his grave concern over these developments only the other day. He wrote, "Maldives and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's advice to India to settle its affairs with Pakistan through dialogue is symptomatic of a larger malaise. Perhaps our goodness is now being mistaken for weakness. But who is to tell this to our Prime Minister".
He further wrote, "Sometimes, in international affairs, a single gesture reveals far more than laborious statements and voluminous reports. There was one such moment in Thimpu when the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan emerged from behind a diaphanous curtain to provide a photo opportunity. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took his place to stand on the right side facing the photographers. The Pakistani Prime Minister was about to step towards the left side. When Prime Ministers take their position, especially in the India-Pakistan context, woe betide anyone who dares prompt them differently. Yet this is exactly what happened. A junior Pakistani official signaled suggesting that the Indian Prime Minister shifts to the left side. It was an awkward moment, one that may not have a precedent, but the Prime Minister of India shuffled over to a position indicated to him on the left. Now the Pakistani Prime Minister was on the right side; a position that is considered of psychological advantage in Summit level handshakes -- as our friends the Americans would have told us. But it wasn't merely a question of disadvantage in the photo op. The issue concerns the dignity and respect for our Prime Minister. Why must he be embarrassed into shuffling across to a new position on a cue given by some Pakistani official? Why wasn't the positioning at photo-op anticipated…?"
All this shows that our foreign policy is in a shambles and that a number of foreign countries have been able to exercise their pernicious influence over the foreign policy-managers here in India. They want India to clap with one hand or they want India to yield so that Islamabad gets what it has been trying to get since 1947. It is no wonder that Islamabad is getting emboldened with each passing day and taunting and insulting our foreign office, and even our Prime Minister.
Take, for example, what Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told on Thursday the National Assembly of Pakistan. He, among other things, told, "The revival of the composite dialogue between Pakistan and India was the result of our successful foreign policy…The Kashmir issue is in the agenda for dialogue with India…Kashmir has been the keystone of the foreign policy of Pakistan and we will continue the diplomatic and moral support of the Kashmiri people for peaceful settlement of the issue…Pakistan's point of view on Kashmir is akin to a resolution adopted by the UN…The peaceful resolution of Kashmir sans inclusion of the Kashmiri leadership in the talks is impossible".
What Qureshi said in the National Assembly was a negation of the stand the Indian Foreign Office took on the outcome of Thimpu biltaral talks between the two Prime Ministers. The Indian Foreign Office has been consistently maintaining that there is no question of restarting composite dialogue with Pakistan. A day before also he had made an almost identical statement at Islamabad. He had said, "We are firm in our stance and shall continue extending moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiri people for their right to self- determination. It is our principled stand on Kashmir and we shall continue our efforts for a durable and peaceful resolution of this issue…No solution to the Kashmir issue will be durable if the Kashmiris are not made part of it.
Any dialogue between India and Pakistan shall be incomplete without the participation of the Kashmiri people…The Kashmir issue is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy…and we cannot be oblivious to it. But we desire a peaceful resolution through dialogue. That is the only way forward".
New Delhi must take cognizance of two facts and act accordingly to safeguard its strategic interests. One is that it would be dangerous to believe Islamabad. The other is that its foreign policy is fundamentally flawed. The sooner it takes note of these two facts, the better. Its isolation at international level is not in the best interests of India.
Panun Kashmir leader Dr Ajay Churngoo is right when he says that "the attitude of Government of India in recent times reflects that its strategic partnership with USA has brought only strategic destabilization of India", that "India is not a surrogate nation or a colony whose interests will be decided by foreign powers" and that "Indian people have no obligation to protect the interests of Americans in the region and also that of the state of Pakistan". These are indeed sane words and these need to be heeded to. (Concluded)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
