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Aug 12, 2016

Needed: Peace in Kashmir

by Jagdish N. Singh
August 9, 2016

When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister two years ago, he had a mandate from the citizens behind him and his party was in power. It was assumed, therefore, that he would be able to adopt policies and programs that would foster peace and development in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been troubled ever since it became part of India in 1947. The scenario in the Kashmir Valley is, however, getting no better.

In a recent discussion on the ongoing crisis in Kashmir, a prominent member of the Indian Parliament said, “This government has miserably failed to restore peace in the Valley. There is an environment of insecurity and fear.”

Reports suggest that the right to exist, the most fundamental human right, has increasingly been in peril in the Valley. Since the killing of the dreaded Hizb-ul-Mujahideen “commander”, Burhan Wani — who allegedly had an encounter with Hafiz Saeed the notorious Pakistani terrorist leader and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks — there have been violent clashes there. Some protesters have been seen showing support for the Islamic State.

In the current crisis, forty-six people have been killed and 3,140, half of them security personnel, have been wounded.

The government in New Delhi has done little so far to help. It is still adhering to its predecessors’ well-trodden path of first blaming Islamabad for the crisis and then refuting Pakistan’s occasional proposals for the issue.

India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh said recently, “Whatever is happening in Kashmir is Pakistan-sponsored. The name is ‘Pakistan,’ [Land of the Pure] but its acts are na-pak [not pure].”

In response to Islamabad’s talk of a plebiscite to determine the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said in a debate in the Parliament that the proposition was “outdated.”

It makes no sense for the Singh to waste the nation’s precious time criticizing Pakistan or blasting its plebiscite proposition. It is well-established that Pakistan has been seeking to foment trouble in the Valley and annex it by force.

Also well-established is that Islamabad has apparently never cared for the 1951 United Nations resolution regarding Jammu and Kashmir. The resolution prescribed a referendum to be conducted in the state after Pakistan withdrew its troops from the part of Kashmir that it captured by force in 1947. Islamabad has so far not honoured this resolution.

Pakistan has, in fact, not seemed interested in solving the Kashmir dispute by any peaceful, bilateral negotiations with India. In 1972, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi created, with her Pakistani counterpart, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Shimla Accord. This pact states that all disputes between New Delhi and Islamabad are to be solved bilaterally and peaceably, including the Kashmir question. But Pakistan has not cared to honour this deal and has instead planned wars, including the war in Kargil, against India.