Unresolved Kashmir issue keeps India, Pakistan apart and South Asia in deep insecurity
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Enayet Rasul Bhuiyan
The Kashmir problem is as old as the existence of India and Pakistan or has been lingering for over sixty years. Many formulas have been suggested for arch enemies, the nuclear armed India and Pakistan, to become friends and, thus, to convert south Asia that holds one quarter of humanity and is one of the world's poorest regions, into a zone of peace. The recommended solutions range from mutually accepting the present line of control between Indian held Kashmir and Pakistani held one, as the final international boundaries between the two countries, signing a no-war pact between India and Pakistan, taking active steps of relations normalization through greater trade, travel, people-to-people contact, etc. All of these ways have been tried and explored but none worked, so far. The reasons are that the same were non starters as long term solution in the first place. There can be no peace between India and Pakistan as long as the Kashmir problem keeps on burning and what is more significant, a solution is attempted bypassing or hoodwinking the aspirations of the majority people of Kashmir. This is the crux of the problem : disrespect for the real wishes of the people of Kashmir by denying them the right to determine their own destiny which the most powerful organ of the world's highest assembly, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), granted them through a resolution sixty years ago. The UNSC resolution in 1948, in all fairness and principles of justice and equity, had declared that the people of Kashmir would determine their own destiny of whether to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent through a plebiscite to be held under impartial international supervision. But Kashmiris never could exercise this right and to this factor all the conflicts and bitterness since then can be traced back. The perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks two years ago were alleged to be Pakistan based Kashmiri militant groups. They were suspected as the ones behind the incidents who sought, through these attacks, to spoil the moves for improved Indo-Pakistan relations that would lead to a slack in Pakistan's determination to back their struggle for self determination. Even if this theory is admitted, it would follow that real normalization of Indo-Pak relations cannot happen as long as the Kashmir problem remains alive. It cannot be expected, as stated above, that Indo-Pakistan relations can practically improve bypassing the Kashmir problem. Sooner rather than later, the issue of Kashmir must return to spoil the normalization process. With the Kashmir problem effectively addressed, India and Pakistan could divert their vast expenditure on armaments to economic growth and development. But the peace dividends will not be realised with the Kashmir problem remaining intact and only veiled for the moment. Nor the portents of a nuclear showdown in the region with terrible consequences for it and the world quite diminish as long as lasting peace is not established in Kashmir with full justice for its people. In the eighties, the US was full of praises for Pakistan as it used the latter to supply the Afghan resistance fighting the Soviet Union. With the Soviet forces pushed out of Afghanistan, the importance of Pakistan as a strategic ally decreased for the US and it embarked afresh on its game of treating Pakistan like an unimportant country and concentrated its energies on wooing India even at the high cost of its old ally, Pakistan. History has turned a full circle. The US has gone back to its old game of treating India as more equal than Pakistan now that it has squeezed out enough from Pakistan for its campaign in Afghanistan. It thinks nothing of so sweepingly bracketing the Kashmiri freedom fighters as terrorists with the Talibans and the Al Queida. It was up to the Pakistani leaders to make it clear to the US and the world that the Kashmiri freedom fighters and the Talebans are not birds of the same feathers. While the Talebans were universally condemned for their medieval barbarism and the Al Queida for their international terrorism, the Kashmiri freedom fighters by comparison are fighting for a just cause which is their right to self determination. About half a million Indian forces have been engaged in peace time to suppress an uprising for freedom by the Kashmiri people. Kashmir is a disputed area as recognised by the UN Security Council. In Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, the main principle of the partition of the Indian subcontinent between Muslim and Hindu majority areas, stands most unabashedly violated. If the Kashmiri freedom fighters have taken up arms to fight, as they conceive it, the occupation forces and if for this reason they are to be branded as terrorists and treated thereof , then the French resistance who fought the Germans during the Second World war were also terrorists. Or , the Bangladeshi freedom fighters who fought for the independence or self determination of Bangladesh in 1971, were also terrorists. But they were not and freedom fighters and terrorists must be shown in their true light or correct perspectives respectively. It appears that successive governments in Pakistan failed in this task rather pathetically which amounts to a painful betrayal of the cause of the people of Kashmir.
The Kashmir problem is as old as the existence of India and Pakistan or has been lingering for over sixty years. Many formulas have been suggested for arch enemies, the nuclear armed India and Pakistan, to become friends and, thus, to convert south Asia that holds one quarter of humanity and is one of the world's poorest regions, into a zone of peace. The recommended solutions range from mutually accepting the present line of control between Indian held Kashmir and Pakistani held one, as the final international boundaries between the two countries, signing a no-war pact between India and Pakistan, taking active steps of relations normalization through greater trade, travel, people-to-people contact, etc. All of these ways have been tried and explored but none worked, so far. The reasons are that the same were non starters as long term solution in the first place. There can be no peace between India and Pakistan as long as the Kashmir problem keeps on burning and what is more significant, a solution is attempted bypassing or hoodwinking the aspirations of the majority people of Kashmir. This is the crux of the problem : disrespect for the real wishes of the people of Kashmir by denying them the right to determine their own destiny which the most powerful organ of the world's highest assembly, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), granted them through a resolution sixty years ago. The UNSC resolution in 1948, in all fairness and principles of justice and equity, had declared that the people of Kashmir would determine their own destiny of whether to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent through a plebiscite to be held under impartial international supervision. But Kashmiris never could exercise this right and to this factor all the conflicts and bitterness since then can be traced back. The perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks two years ago were alleged to be Pakistan based Kashmiri militant groups. They were suspected as the ones behind the incidents who sought, through these attacks, to spoil the moves for improved Indo-Pakistan relations that would lead to a slack in Pakistan's determination to back their struggle for self determination. Even if this theory is admitted, it would follow that real normalization of Indo-Pak relations cannot happen as long as the Kashmir problem remains alive. It cannot be expected, as stated above, that Indo-Pakistan relations can practically improve bypassing the Kashmir problem. Sooner rather than later, the issue of Kashmir must return to spoil the normalization process. With the Kashmir problem effectively addressed, India and Pakistan could divert their vast expenditure on armaments to economic growth and development. But the peace dividends will not be realised with the Kashmir problem remaining intact and only veiled for the moment. Nor the portents of a nuclear showdown in the region with terrible consequences for it and the world quite diminish as long as lasting peace is not established in Kashmir with full justice for its people. In the eighties, the US was full of praises for Pakistan as it used the latter to supply the Afghan resistance fighting the Soviet Union. With the Soviet forces pushed out of Afghanistan, the importance of Pakistan as a strategic ally decreased for the US and it embarked afresh on its game of treating Pakistan like an unimportant country and concentrated its energies on wooing India even at the high cost of its old ally, Pakistan. History has turned a full circle. The US has gone back to its old game of treating India as more equal than Pakistan now that it has squeezed out enough from Pakistan for its campaign in Afghanistan. It thinks nothing of so sweepingly bracketing the Kashmiri freedom fighters as terrorists with the Talibans and the Al Queida. It was up to the Pakistani leaders to make it clear to the US and the world that the Kashmiri freedom fighters and the Talebans are not birds of the same feathers. While the Talebans were universally condemned for their medieval barbarism and the Al Queida for their international terrorism, the Kashmiri freedom fighters by comparison are fighting for a just cause which is their right to self determination. About half a million Indian forces have been engaged in peace time to suppress an uprising for freedom by the Kashmiri people. Kashmir is a disputed area as recognised by the UN Security Council. In Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, the main principle of the partition of the Indian subcontinent between Muslim and Hindu majority areas, stands most unabashedly violated. If the Kashmiri freedom fighters have taken up arms to fight, as they conceive it, the occupation forces and if for this reason they are to be branded as terrorists and treated thereof , then the French resistance who fought the Germans during the Second World war were also terrorists. Or , the Bangladeshi freedom fighters who fought for the independence or self determination of Bangladesh in 1971, were also terrorists. But they were not and freedom fighters and terrorists must be shown in their true light or correct perspectives respectively. It appears that successive governments in Pakistan failed in this task rather pathetically which amounts to a painful betrayal of the cause of the people of Kashmir.