Binoo Joshi
J K News Today
The latest from Islamabad is that the Pakistan Government has decided to take the “ Kashmir issue” to the international court of justice, and this is a clear reflection of the muddled thinking of Pakistani establishment that has been rebuffed and rejected at all international forums, including the United National Security Council ( UNSC) last week.
If one may ask what is Pakistan’s case on Jammu and Kashmir given the new and irreversible reality of the state ? In the first place Pakistan has to establish that it has some locus standi on Kashmir. And, there is none whatsoever. Its immediate knee jerk reaction seems to be in the new mood that is tempering the Indian nation, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has articulated in unequivocal terms that “ Now there would be talk on Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir only.” The new India is full of confidence and the Indian nation has also called the bluff of Pakistan on the nuclear blackmail. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s threat that Kashmir could be a nuclear flashpoint with a catastrophic consequences not only for the whole region ( South Asia) but also for the world . It was asked of him by retired army chief of the Indian army Gen V P Malik, “ did he ( Imran Khan) had the control over its nuclear button.” The world has long feared that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall in the hands of terrorists networks like Al-Qaeda and now ISIS.
One of the arguments that it has in its armoury on which it runs the fiction that the “ Kashmir dispute” is yet to be settled as per the UNSC resolutions that offered a choice to the people of erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to make a choice between India and Pakistan as their country of their future.
The resolutions were indeed passed. But the legitimacy of the resolutions , if these had any , was violated by Pakistan that did not pull out its armed forces and nationals from the territory under its control. More important fact is that these resolutions were advisory in nature not binding at all.
Pakistan has activated its propaganda machinery with a clear objective to mislead the world opinion on Kashmir , but unfortunately , for it , there are no takers for what is saying and claiming with regard to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
There are many reasons why the world will not listen to it , any it has no legal locus standi on the issue.
First, historically J&K was never part of Pakistan . Maharaja Hari Singh had signed a standstill Agreement with Pakistan on August 15, 1947 , to maintain the independence of his state . In October Pakistan launched a war in violation of the international law to change the geography of the state, for it wanted to annex the territory in the garb of a specious argument that J&K was a Muslim-majority state . True. But this fact was known to Pakistan when it had signed the Stand Still Agreement on August 15 , then it should have held negotiations with the king . But it did not , instead it launched a war and unleashed atrocities on all sections of people, including Muslims in J&K . How does it explain that behaviour .
Second, Pakistan will have to re-open all the chapters of the history of the past 72 years and mirror itself in the times . Why did it launch a war in 1965, and why did it again tried to annex the territory of J&K in 1971 , when its East wing or East Pakistan, now Bangladesh , was up in arms against the dictatorial attitude of the West Pakistan politicians and military. Then the proxy war in 1990 , and further the min-war in Kargil in 1999 . All the pages of these calendar years point out that Pakistan made several bids to bleed India and caused huge loss to the people of Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his televised address to the nation on August 8 rightly asked , why 42,000 people were killed in terrorism sponsored by Pakistan .
Third, what will Pakistan tell that it is hurt because India has done away with a historical wrong of doing away with the Article 370 that was “ temporary” and had been used by Pakistan and its agents to promote terrorism in J&K .
Four, Pakistan will have to explain , how come it is a party to the internal affairs of India. Logically speaking J&K was an integral part of India , and Delhi has removed this temporary provision once and for all .
Five, Pakistan needs to explain what it unhappy about that the forces were able to maintain public order in Kashmir and there was not even a single casualty all these days after the state was declared free of the special status that was discriminatory in nature and served as a barrier between fellow Indians living in J&K and the rest of the country.
Six, Pakistan also has to explain that why J&K becoming Union territory that will open new vistas and new opportunities for the people of the state is not acceptable to it . India has done what was in the interest of the people of J&K and the nation of which it is an integral part as it was before . Now it is more so sans Article 370.
