Kanchan Gupta: Goodbye, Kashmir

February 21st

once again, caving into pakistani pressure. why on earth is it so important to the ghazal-spewing politicians to agree to every pakistani demand? why not say, "forget the bus"? what difference does the darn bus make to the continuing terrorism in kashmir?

Goodbye, Kashmir!

Kanchan Gupta | February 21, 2005 | 11:22 IST

Bend a little. Make some concessions. Do a compromise
deal. Don't be stuck up on sovereignty. Stop repeating
that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.
Or else.

All this, and more, has been the recurring theme of
unequivocal, blunt messages flashed by pushy US State
Department officials in Washington and their smirking
lackey in khaki in Islamabad to spineless wonders who
occupy South Block in New Delhi and have a fetish for
'thinking out of the box.'

Of course, the Government of India, run from a
bungalow located at 10 Janpath in Lutyen's Delhi, has
refused to bend, make concessions or strike a
compromise deal.

Instead, the Government of India has chosen to crawl.
On February 16, in the guise of promoting
people-to-people contacts across the Line of Control
that separates Jammu and Kashmir from
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by starting a
Srinagar-Muzzafarabad bus service on Pakistan's terms,
the Government of India has virtually abdicated
India's sovereignty and sovereign rights.

The so-called 'most significant confidence-building
measure' between India and Pakistan is a deal that is
heavily loaded against India's national interests. It
is a sellout in which the Congress-led UPA government
is a complicit partner.

National Conference president Omar Abdullah, in many
ways more cunning than other Kashmiri politicians, has
made the most apt comment that sums up what India has
lost on account of Pakistan's steadfast obstinacy and
American arm-twisting.

'This step has really reinforced the fact that Jammu
and Kashmir has a special status in this country,'
says Omar Abdullah, 'I see a big change in the foreign
policy of India, which hitherto was based on
"Kashmir-is-an-integral-part-of-India" rhetoric. There
has been a climb-down.'

...more