Binoo Joshi
News Analysis
JKNT
India has a problem and it pays a heavy price for not taking advantage of the men and women in Kashmir who can really turn table in its favour at the international forums . They are coherent , but India plays politics of flip-flop with them and makes them look weak in their convictions and commitments . Trust begets trust.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s address in New York should be an eye-opener . His speech and the question-answer with the students there suggested emphatically that not only he has the clear idea of what the Kashmir problem is , and where it solution lies . That is within the Constitution of India .
More importantly , Omar has torn apart Pakistan and separatists’ repeated calls on the implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir that grant the right to the people of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir to make choice of next country. Who could have been a better brand ambassador of Kashmir, who is realistic though some of his assertions may run against the jingoism thumping crowd in the country . Pakistanis, of course, will hate , to put it bluntly , his showing of mirror to Islamabad on the U N resolutions.
Let any one from Pakistan challenge Omar Abdullah’s knowledge and assertion of the historical facts about the U N resolution . “ Pakistan is obligated to vacate its regular and irregular forces from the territories of Jammu and Kashmir under its control.” The subsequent question , “ how can India take step no 2 unless Pakistan has step no 1”.
Something that has rarely been pointed out in the public domain so far is that the territory of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistan’s control is not the same what it was in 1947. “ Pakistan has tinkered with the territory ( gifted it to China, and annexed Gilgit Baltistan and allowed the China to carve out China- Pakistan economic Corridor through the undivided J&K’s territory), India has not.”
Omar Abdullah , who did not cover himself with glory during his six-year rule as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, when radical Islam made its way to the state , has a strong point that Kashmir is a political problem and it needs a political solution . He refers to the original document of instrument of accession that barring defence, communications and foreign affairs , all other subjects would be governed by the state . That’s history . Although needles of the clock, a favourite phrase with a many leaders in the country, but there can be discussions to find out a meeting ground where the identity of Kashmir finds a respectable position in the Indian union.
Watch out ! Omar ‘s talent and potential should be utilised in course-correction in Kashmir.
