The statement of Mr. Jaswant Singh Foreign Minister of India in the Indian Parliament on 18th April 2001 is more a His Masters Voice than a statement from a seasoned politician as is expected from a foreign minister. He has harped very much on the tune that the United Nation Resolution on Kashmir initiated at the request of the founding fathers of India is time barred. This is adding insult by Jaswant Singh to his own Prime Minister and injury to his political rivals in the parliament � The Congress Party.
Mr. Jaswant Singh would be na�ve not to know that International issues are never time barred. So far as the Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration are concerned they are only corollaries to the main issue, which is Kashmir and Kashmir alone. Jaswant Singh wants General Pervez Musharraf to create an amiable atmosphere to have a cup of tea with Indian Prime Minister Mr. Vajpayee. Can the Indian Prime Minister assure the same amiable atmosphere in India on successful completion of Kashmir talks? Would not his opposition take a political advantage of whatever the results might be. The Indian foreign minister would be better advised to have a clear perception of things in order to develop himself to a statesman to which this road of politics leads otherwise he will also end up as a mediocre politician.
Let Mr. Jaswant Singh speak the truth, BJP Government survives on keeping Kashmir problem alive and following the policy of Vishwa Hindu Pareshed and RSS headed by Ball Thakrey, who is the actual ruler of India. The government in India does realize the facts but at the same time they have to play to the gallery for their own survival. With these bare and bitter facts there does not seems to be any hope for solution of Kashmir issue during the BJP regime or any government which relies for its support from the Hindu Fundamentalists on their secular policies in which every citizen of India has a right.
Mr. Jaswant Singh, while delivering a lecture to Thaker Parsad Memorial Society at Patna has further accused one of the founding fathers of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of having made the greatest mistake of his life by taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nation, for which the Indian nation is suffering till today. Little does he realize that it is always the nation and the masses that suffer for the mistakes of their leaders. Future historians would also record the misery perpetrated on the people of India by the fundamentalists and short sighted policies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee just for the sake of retaining his chair and following the fundamentalist dictates of Ball Thakrey. History is always impartial and cruel judge of events and Mr. Jaswant Singh should not loose sight of this bitter fact in his being more loyal to BJP. Mr. Jaswant Singh has not spared even one of the founding fathers and lay against the venomous charge of having made the greatest mistake of taking Kashmir issue to the United Nation.
So far as the theory of Kashmir being the attotung of India is concerned the attention of the readers is invited to the famous book ” The Transfer of Power in India.” By no less a person but Mr. V. P. Menon, the first Secretary of the Ministry of States, government of India, while Sardar Wallabhai Patel, Indian strong man was the minister incharge. Mr. V. P. Menon writes in his famous book that when the Indian troops were airlifted to Kashmir in October 1947, the pilot of the aircraft had instructions not to land at the Sri Nagar airfield if he found even a single Pathan raider on the airfield. Alas! But there were none, otherwise India would not have claimed the so-called attootung. Mr. V. P. Menon who was sitting glued to the Radio, heaved the sigh of relief when the pilot radioed back that they have landed at Sri Nagar. Had there been even one single Pathan raider the story of Kashmir would have been some thing else than what it is now.
The Kashmir problem based on a piece of paper surreptitiously signed by the Maharaja is only a parting kick by Lord Mountbatten in reply to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s rebuff to him by not accepting him as the first Governor General of Pakistan. Such piece of paper signed by the Nawabs of Junagargh, Manavader and Mangrol are only to be found now in the archives of the respective governments. The accession signed by the Nawabs is not being considered worth the paper it is signed on. Such cases of double standard are available not only in history but also in the present day politics � East Timor and Kashmir being the case in example.
Balasaheb Vikhe Patil the Junior Finance Minister of India has stated in his written reply in the Indian Parliament on Indian claim of 24.45 million pound sterling transferred by the former Nizam of Hyderabad in National Westminster Bank of London. Following Mr. Jaswant Singh’s fallacy is this Indian Claim also not time barred. The readers have to form their own opinion.
JKLF leader Mr. Yasin Malik who is in United States for medical treatment these days has in his meetings with American Think Tanks and various groups advocated an impartial election under International supervision to elect delegates to represent Kashmiris in talks with India and Pakistan. The core issue is Kashmir, with or without India and with or without Pakistan. We have stressed in these columns that Kashmir without Kashmiris is not worth it, either, for India and for Pakistan. The best and the only solution required by law and required by cannons of justice and required by conscience is Kashmir for Kashmiris, as India is for Indians and Pakistan is for Pakistanis. The warring factions on Kashmir should withdraw their forces and leave Kashmir for the Kashmiris, this is the only and this is the best solution for South Asia, which will avoid future holocaust, which is on the anvil because of the power politics.
Kashmir and Kashmiris are victims of power politics, the problem started when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru approached the United Nation Security Council to save the Maharaja of Kashmir from the raiders and the freedom fighters and when the dice turned and Indian troops were able to establish strong hold in Kashmir. The Indian Prime Minister went back on his words given to the United Nations. Even his biographer Frank Moarass could not justify his stand on Kashmir and according to him it is only an article of faith for Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that he was born in Kashmir.
Had there been statesmen, rather then politicians involved in Kashmir, the matter would have been settled long before. People in Assam, Bengal, Tripura in the East and Kerala, Hyderabad and Chennai in the South are least interested in power struggle in Kashmir. An impartial and honest referendum on the issue will tell the tale but it requires a statesman to do it, People are interested in good governance and not on expansion of territories and fight for the musical chairs. Is there any statesman, who can rise to this occasion?
Mr. Ali Ashraf Khan is a Pakistani Businessman and Ex-Politician who bid good bye to politics in order to concentrate on more useful service benefit of the political intrigues prevalent in the National Political life of Pakistan. He frequently writes for English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan.
