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| Congress shocks nation by ignoring 1994 resolution | | Leasing Gilgit-Baltistan | | Rustam
Jammu, Mar 23: On March 2, Panun Kashmir (PK) leaders, including Ajay Chrungoo and Prof MK Teng, made a fervent appeal to the Congress-dominated UPA Government to take cognizance of the reported decision of Pakistan to lease Gilgit-Baltistan region - which is undoubtedly Indian - to China for 50 years. The PK leaders asserted, and very rightly, that the reported decision, if correct, was fraught with dangerous ramifications as far as the territorial integrity of India and that it was time for New Delhi to assert its position so that the northern frontiers were fully secured for India. "The Government of India has never chosen to wake up to the reality that Pakistan has always sought simultaneously to create a Pak-American alliance, along with a Pak-Chinese Axis, along the northern frontiers of Jammu and Kashmir mainly to acquire control of the Himalayas to contain the role of India in determining the future Asian balance of power and confine Indian military presence to merely Shivalik plains situated east of the river Tawi," was the upshot of their whole argument. The Government of India took no cognizance of what the PK leaders said.
On March 19, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was rocked with legislators belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) and Jammu State Morcha (JSM) drawing the attention of the state government to the reported move of Islamabad on leasing Gilgit-Baltistan to Beijing. They charged the authorities with compromising Indian sovereignty in the strategic region, accused the Congress of forgetting the February 22, 1994 unanimous parliamentary resolution on Jammu and Kashmir and urged the authorities to take appropriate steps to defeat the evil designs of Pakistan and China. They registered their protest by staging a walkout. The state government candidly acknowledged that it was a serious development. As for the Congress ministers and MLAs, they kept silent as if nothing had happened.
It was hoped that the Union Government would rise to the occasion and take on Pakistan for what it reportedly proposed to do in the Gilgit-Baltistan region to weaken the Indian influence or position along the northern frontiers in collaboration with the over-ambitious China violating the UN Security resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. (UN resolutions implicitly recognise Indian sovereignty in Gilgit-Baltistan region as well as the so-called Azad Kashmir.) The hope had stemmed from the response the protesting BJP, JKNPP and JSM MLAs evoked from the state government. But the Congress-led UPA Government did nothing whatever to take on and corner Islamabad. On the contrary, the Indian Foreign Office (IFO) again reiterated that it was committed to resolving all the outstanding issues with Pakistan through an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue. There was no reference to Gilgit-Baltistan or to media reports to this effect.
It would be only desirable to refer here what Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmad said yesterday in Rajya Sabha regarding India-Pakistan relations and China and Chinese activities in developing countries such as Nepal. In a written reply to the House, Ahmad said, "India is committed to resolve all outstanding issues with Pakistan through dialogue in the interest of peace and prosperity of our people…Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar during her recent visit (to New Delhi) spoke in favour of an 'uninterrupted and uninterruptible' dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad and reiterated the same in her speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September…It is (the Indian) Government's consistently expressed position that it is necessary to have an environment free of terror or threat of terror if relations between India and Pakistan are to move forward concretely and meaningfully".
Replying to a question on China bagging contracts in Nepal for development works, E Ahmad informed the House that "(Indian) Government has seen media reports to this effect. Government is aware of China's enhanced economic and technological capabilities in execution of infrastructure projects in developing countries such as Nepal. The Government (Of India) closely follows all developments having a bearing on India's national interest and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it".
What does all this show? It shows that the Congress and the Congress-dominated UPA Government have not only forgotten the 1994 resolution but also not attached any importance whatsoever to what Islamabad and China have proposed to do in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. It is a very serious matter. Have the Congress and the Congress-dominated UPA Government finally raised their hands and decided to compromise the Indian position in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir in its desperate bid to placate Pakistan? It appears so. How else should one interpret the conspicuous absence of any reference to the reported decision on lease of Gilgit-Baltistan to China in the written reply of E Ahmad to the Rajya Sabha? |
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