Author: Dr Girdhari Lal Bhan
Publication: Sangh Sandesh
Date: January-February 2002
URL: www.hss-uk.org
In recent times Lord Ahmed has been
making wild accusations against India on British television and radio and
in the press. His utterances are full of venom and rhetoric but lack facts.
Let us look at the facts. Over the years, Pakistan has repeatedly attempted
to make Kashmir an international issue and sought mediation by superpowers
under the guise of implementing the UN Resolutions. Pakistan, a theocratic
totalitarian State claims that it is 'acting out of concern for the democratic
aspirations of Kashmiri people and to safeguard their Human Rights'. In
reality, its singular aim is to acquire Kashmir. Pakistan demands 'plebiscite
and self-determination' for the people of Kashmir. Where were these lofty
principles when they demanded the creation of Pakistan? Why were the wishes
of the people of India as a whole not taken into account in deciding whether
to partition India?
UN Resolutions:
It was India that went to the UN
in 1948 to complain against the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan. Instead
of responding to India's complaint, the UN - at the behest of the superpowers
- decided that there should be a referendum in Kashmir. This referendum
never took place - not because India did not agree, but because Pakistan
did not comply with the pre-requisite to the referendum - that it must
first vacate the areas it had invaded and occupied. Decades later, the
UN Resolutions are obsolete as has been acknowledged by the UN itself.
The situation that prevailed in 1948 has materially altered since:
I) The two countries have fought
wars and subsequently signed Accords at Tashkent and Simla whereby both
countries acknowledge that any dispute they have over Kashmir will be resolved
bilaterally and peacefully.
II) In 1962 China invaded India
and ever since remains in occupation of 14% of the territory of the Jammu
& Kashmir State.
III) In 1974, through an Act of
Parliament, Pakistan annexed a vast portion of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
as part of Pakistan.
IV) More recently Pakistan gifted
a portion of northern Kashmir to China as a 'thank you' when China helped
in the rebuilding of the Silk Road.
Accession:
That Kashmir is legally a part
of India is beyond question. The Accession took place in accordance with
the requirements of the Instrument of Accession. That on its own is enough.
However, India accepted the Accession only after the Maharaja's offer had
been fully endorsed by all the political leaders of the State, including
Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq
and many others. Several years later, following democratic elections and
the establishment of the State Legislative Assembly, the elected leaders
of Kashmir formally ratified the Accession to India as 'final and irrevocable'.
The people of Kashmir made their choice. These are facts.
Terrorism:
It is stated that there is a heavy
presence of Indian security personnel in Kashmir, which must be withdrawn.
Not at all. Indian security personnel have every right to be there, to
protect the integrity of the country and to ensure the safety of the citizens,
vast majority of who are not party to the current insurgency. As a matter
of fact Pakistan has been, and is, fighting a war with India albeit a proxy
war through the terrorists it trains and funds. That war began in 1948
when it first invaded Kashmir. Pakistan attempted to project that invasion
as a 'popular uprising of Kashmiri people against India'. Anyone not familiar
with the events of 1948 should refer to the UN investigator, Australian
Chief Justice Sir Owen Dixon. After his thorough enquiry he clearly established
that Pakistan had committed aggression. The rape, pillage and slaughter
of Hindus were also clearly documented. A complete ethnic cleansing of
Hindus was carried out from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and this is not well
known. 60,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed in a murderous frenzy over a
period of three days. A similar situation was repeated in 1989 when the
terrorists resorted to widespread atrocities directed against Hindus and
secular Muslims in Kashmir Valley. A third of a million Hindus were forced
to leave the Valley to safeguard their lives. To-date they remain refugees
in their own country, their houses in the Valley burnt or appropriated.
Their protagonists describe the
terrorists in Kashmir as 'freedom fighters' and 'fighters for social justice'.
In reality, they are working for their own political objectives. In doing
so, they are working to destroy democratic institutions where democracy
exists, to impose their own theocratic intolerant totalitarianism on democratic
secular people, and inflict misery on innocent human beings. Their numerous
victims are a testimony to that.
Is Kashmir 'an unfinished business
of Partition', an 'international issue'? Yes, in so far as Pakistan and
China occupy parts of Indian territory that they acquired through military
aggression in 1948 and 1965 respectively. In relation to Kashmir, India
has four objectives: i) eradicate terrorism, ii) restore peace and prosperity
to the people of Kashmir that they had enjoyed prior to the arrival of
terrorism in 1989, iii) create circumstances in which those who have been
driven out by the terrorists can return safely to the Valley, and iv) get
its territories vacated by Pakistan and China.
