Kashmir - A Golden Opportunity

The forthcoming Vajpayee-Musharraf talks provide yet another opportunity tochange the course of history of India, Pakistan and Kashmir (the state of Jammuand  Kashmir) ensuring them a peaceful, respectable and prosperous futureprovided that India does away with her colonialistic approach to Kashmir issuei.e. her Atoot-Ang rhetoric, Pakistan stops committing selfish follieslike denying to Kashmiris their right to opt for complete independence of theirmotherland, Kashmiri leaders on both sides of the divide act as real Kashmiripatriots and the international community realises its responsibility towards theKashmir issue.

The Kashmir issue is still the simplest and easiest of all contemporaryinternational issues provided all concerned demonstrate sincere and selflessdesire to solve it. All that needs to be done to solve it once for all is thatIndia and Pakistan should, instead of parroting their claims and accusing eachother of standing in the way of solving the issue, fulfill their own nationallyand internationally made pledges to concede to Kashmiris their inherentinalienable and internationally recognised right to shape their own future. The Kashmiri leadership should act patriotically instead of acting as puppets ofIndia or Pakistan and the international community should play an active role inpersuading and facilitating India and Pakistan to solve the issue.

Solemn Promises

To refresh the memory of those who look at Kashmir as a very complicated problem, let me refer to only one each of thescores of commitments made by India and Pakistan at national and internationallevels:-

• On January 15, 1948, the leader of the Indian delegation to the UnitedNations, while addressing the Security Council, said "Whether she (Kashmir)should withdraw from her accession to India, either accede to Pakistan or remainindependent with a right to claim admission as a member of the United Nations,all this we have recognised to be a matter of unfettered decision by the peopleof Kashmir after normal life is restored there".
• On June 17, 1947 Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared, "With thetermination of Paramountcy, Indian States would be free either to join theHindustan Constituent Assembly, or the Pakistan Constituent Assembly or toremain independent". On July 11, 1947,  Jinnah repeated his stand this timeclearly mentioning that Kashmir was fully entitled to declare completeindependence and if she did so, Pakistan would be happy to enter into anagreement with her as may be beneficial to both.

There could not be a more solemn and public declaration from Indiarecognising Kashmiris' right to opt for full independence of their State andthere could not be more unambiguous a declaration from father of Pakistanination accepting Kashmiris' right to independence.

What brought India from the aforementioned solemn pledge made from therostrum of the highest international forum to her present rhetoric of Kashmirbeing her integral part and what made Pakistan reverse her own father'sdeclaration and pledge is a very long, painful and agonising story better not tobe explained here.

Ground Realities?

Whether one likes them or not, whether they are justified or not, but theredo exist some realities which cannot be ignored or bypassed while looking for apeaceful, practicable, equitable and permanent solution of Kashmir Issue. Theycan be summed up as follows: -

1. Time has proved it beyond doubt that Indians are badly mistaken if theystill think that time itself would solve the Kashmir issue to their advantage bymaking their occupation of the bulk of Kashmir permanent, even if it is againstthe wishes of Kashmiri people. Pakistanis are equally mistaken if they hope thatIndian occupied part of Kashmir would fall into their lap sooner or later.

2. Failure of bilateralagreements in the last 50 years between India and Pakistan has proved beyond doubt thatthe Kashmir issue can be solved permanently neither through bilateral agreements nor againstthe national aspirations and freely expressed will of the people of the entireJammu & Kashmir state. No solution of the Issue can be practicable unless it isacceptable to India, Pakistan and Kashmiris. It has also been proved that theissue cannot be solved without active participation of international community.

3. Both India and Pakistan have made Kashmir a matter of their nationalego, a challenge to their national ideologies and a threat to their nationalinterests -- to their security in particular. So no solution of the Kashmirissue canbe acceptable to both if it hurts the national ego, harms the national ideologyor jeopardises genuine national interests of either of them.

4. Division of Jammu & Kashmir state in any manner as permanent solution of theissue is bound to cause mass-migrations, bloodshed and communal/ethnicdisturbances on a very large scale.

5. International community is duty-bound per her commitments, latest perunanimous UN Security Council Resolution NO 1172 of 8th June 1998 to help solvethis issue in order to reduce tension between India and Pakistan and to avoidchances of a nuclear war.

6. And most important of all these realities is the fact that were the Kashmirissue to remain hanging in balance, it would continue to bleed the of the economies of both India and Pakistan andkeep the sword of a nuclear warhanging on their heads.

On the other hand, its peaceful, equitable and permanent solutionwould herald the dawn of a peaceful, respectable and prosperous future for India,Pakistan and Kashmir and for one fifth of the humanity living in the regionbesides ridding Kashmiris of the trials and tribulations that they have beenundergoing for the last over half a century.

A permanent solution of Kashmir problem can also ensure permanent peace inthe region and strengthen world peace as well, besides guaranteeing safeinvestments in these countries beneficial to both investors and the localpopulace. One can well imagine the hell and heaven-like difference between thecurses of Kashmir issue remaining unsolved and the fruits of its permanentsolution.

The Solution

In the light of these mostly bitter but un-ignorable realities, only aformula that solves the issue not only peacefully and permanently, but alsowithout hurting the national egos of India and Pakistan, without harming theirnational ideologies and legitimate national interests, without causing furtherbloodshed, mass-migrations and communal and ethnic disturbances, one that is based onthe national aspirations and freely expressed will of Kashmiri people, can proveacceptable to all the three parties to the issue and thus be practicable. It isequally important that the international community actively participatesin the process of implementing the formula.

The formula that meets all the aforementioned conditions is that the dividedJammu & Kashmir state be re-united in several peaceful phases and made a fullyindependent country (initially for 15 years) with a democratic, federal andnon-communal system of government, having friendly relations with both India andPakistan and undertaking that the Kashmir soil will not be allowed to be usedagainst any country.

The formula has got to be implemented with the approval andcooperation of India, Pakistan and Kashmiri political parties on both sides ofthe ceasefire line by an 11 member International Kashmir Committee to be formedby UN Secretary General and comprising one representative each of UN SecretaryGeneral, P-5 Countries, Germany, Japan, OIC and two of NAM. 

Fifteen years afterre-unification, let there be a referendum under UN auspices in which Kashmiriswill determine whether Kashmir should perpetuate its independence or become partof India or Pakistan and that popular verdict be accepted by all concerned asfinal settlement of the issue and implemented.

And that will be the end of the problem that has caused two bloody wars, hasbeen eating into economic vitals of India and Pakistan, has kept about 15million Kashmiris under continuous agony for over half a century besides takingtens of thousands of their lives and that, if left unsolved, can destroy theregion completely.

From A Bone of Contention to A Bridge of Friendship

Some very important benefits and advantages of solving the Kashmir issue per  thisformula are, that it will not harm the nationalegos of India and Pakistan nor give either of them a sense of defeat becauseneither of them will have to hand over the Kashmir territory now under theircontrol to the other. Since the formula does not give the part ofMuslim-majority-state now under India to Muslim Pakistan, it will not disturb orharm Indian secularism.

This solution does not harm the legitimate national interests of India andPakistan because 
(a) Kashmir will have friendly relations with both 
(b) Kashmirisoil will not be used against either of them. 

Nevertheless the best golden giftof solving Kashmir Issue this way is that it will change Kashmir from theposition of a bone of contention into a bridge of friendship between India andPakistan. This change will, on one hand, save South Asia from the horrors of anuclear or a conventional war and rid the two countries of  massive defencebudgets and, on the other, it would herald the dawn of a peaceful, prosperous anddignified future for India, Pakistan and Kashmir. 

It will also benefit theentire world by helping to maintain world peace as also by facilitating largescale investments in these two countries and Kashmir which are inhabited by overone fifth of worlds population. All that India and Pakistan have to do for thesecolossal gains is to part with the territories of Jammu & Kashmir state now undertheir respective control.

The governments of Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and General Pervez Musharrafand the political parties, the media and the intellectuals of India, Pakistanand Kashmir owe it to their respective people and their future generations totake steps conducive to solving Kashmir issue per aforementioned formula or anyother practicable way. 

Lot of opportunities have already been lost. India andPakistan may not get another opportunity like this before a catastrophe ofun-imaginable magnitude cripples both of them.

(The author is the Chairman, JKLF (Amanullah), based in Pakistan)