India - watch out on Imran khan's offer of talks

KASHMIR AND INDIA's MORALITY BUG: A SELF-INJURING POLICY!

Recently, Imran Khan, Prime Minister designate of Pakistan, made a peace gesture to India by stating that Pakistan would move two steps forward for better relations, if India moved one step forward. On the face of it, this seems a very good initiative. But it has a pre-condition I.e. Resolve Kashmir first. The use of pre- condition of “Kashmir- Resolution ”, is a clever way to not to have peace, at all, with India. This is the narrative of Pakistan Army and he has gone with it. It is undoubtedly true that Pakistan army would never allow it. Nawaz Sharief, erstwhile PM of Pakistan, tried it and he languishes in jail. Imran should know his fate too , if he tries anything to improve relations with India . Therefore, India must smell the insincerity in this proposal because Imran needs to first get Pakistan out of the strangle hold of her army on the foreign policy.

All the same, if Kashmir remains unresolved for the last 71 years , it is because of the blunders of Indian leaders of the past, who were bugged by moralities. It happened in 1947-49 and it happened in 1971. Vajpayee’s Lahore Bus of 1999 landed in the rough terrain of Kargil and his Agra Summit of July 2001 collapsed due to over smart move of General Pervez Mushareff. Even today, we continue to be guided by those ill-founded moralities.

In 2016, then serving Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal, Arup Raha had said that India had faltered in the past for not having sought a military solution to the Kashmir problem, when it was well within her capability to do so. In fact India , stung by morality bug, many a times, had turned victory into a stalemate and allowed Pakistan to get out of the unpleasant situation it had got itself in.

Some self - acclaimed peaceniks and moralists, had made noise over his this statement. But they are the people who have committed this heinous crime. Their noise was not to question a wrong but to mask exposure of their gross errors of judgments over the last 70 years. They are well- framed relics of our past misdeeds.

There should be no doubts that JL Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, created Kashmir Problem because of confusion in his mind about Kashmir’s accession to India. If he had an iota of doubt over its accession, he should have installed back Maharaja Hari Singh and allowed him to take the decision about his state, in accordance with the provisions of Indian Independence Act passed by British Parliament. . If he had not accepted accession of J& K to India, what business did he have to take the issue to UNO? In pursuit of his personal ambition of world leadership, he was a confused man.

We have to therefore decide whether reference to UNO on Kashmir by Nehru was correct or wrong? He had No locus standii, if accession was not acceptable. And if it was accepted, then, he should have learnt from Pakistan on accession of Balochistan. There was NO need to go to UNO. Perhaps , he did realise later and that is why he deposed Sheikh Abdulla Government of Kashmir in 1953.

But his confusion in the years, 1947-50, under the influence of Mountbatten and over-powered by a lurking desire for world leadership , he let go India's national Interests. Whatever his reasons and whatever his other achievements, history will always be unkind to him on this issue. His personal ambitions, disguised as moral cloak, disregarded Indian interests. In one of his briefings on security threat , he yelled, " what rubbish? We have no threat. We do not need army. We can do with police---------". And 1962 proved him utterly wrong.

Just look at his confusion on J& K, when he sent a telegram to Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali on 02 November 1947:----

"-----I wish to draw your attention to broadcast on Kashmir which I made last evening. I have stated our government’s policy and made it clear that we have no desire to impose our will on Kashmir but to leave final decision to people of Kashmir. I further stated that we have agreed on impartial international agency like United Nations supervising referendum “.

In a yet another telegram to Lisquat Ali, Nehru reiterated his non acceptance of accession of Kashmir to India, here it is ---

“…our assurance that we shall withdraw our troops from Kashmir as soon as peace and order is restored and leave the decision regarding the future of the State to the people of the State is not merely a promise to your Government but also to the people of Kashmir and to the world.”

(-----Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Telegram No. 25, October 31, 1947, to Liaqat Ali Khan, PM of Pakistan)

He, then, takes the dispute to IUNO under a wrong Chapter to resolve a dispute than eviction of an aggressor. But fortunately for India, Pakistan faltered to act on the UN resolutions of August 1948 and January 1949. The UN resolutions became dead after 1965 war when Pakistan's operation Gibraltar failed because of non cooperation of people of Kashmir with Pakistan's infiltrator. There after UNO had no jurisdiction and India should have thrown them into waste paper basket. But we allowed UN observers in Kashmir to continue. May be Tashkent Delectation of January 1966 came in the way.

In 1950s USA had offered India a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. ( UNSC) But Nehru was overpowered by his own interests as a world leader in the cloak of moral idealism and he rejected it. Instead , he wanted China to be the UNSC member. Eventually with the help of India, China did become its member. It is the same China who is now not only opposing India's membership of NSG ( Nuclear Suppliers Group) but also in occupation of some 42000 Square Kms Indian territory in Ladakh and AKSAI Chin but also laying claims over entire Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly Nehru blundered about Tibet when he accepted Chinese suzerainty over Tibet. Sardar Patel had warned him against this but Nehru refused to listen. He led the nation to believe about " Hindi- Chini/Bhai-Bhai" philosophy. And 1962 blasted this theorem.

Now let us turn to Shimla Agreement of 1972. ZA Bhutto , made a fool of Indra Gandhi and walked away with his 93000 prisoners without giving anything in return, nay not even 54 India soldiers , missing in action and probably in Pakistani Jails since 1971 as Prisoners of war. It seems there was a secret but unwritten clause, which had stated that 1971 Line of Control (LC) in J& K will be recognised as International Border. But the secret clause was only to mislead Indian PM. Thus , out of sheer magnanimity, Indra Gandhi did not protest when Bhutto in 1974, brought Gilgit - Baltistan region directly under the Pakistan’s Federal Government and felines it from POK. It was renamed as FCNA (Federally Controlled Northern Areas) by Pakistan. The main theme of SHIMLA AGREEMENT was that India and Pakistan would resolve all disputes BILATERALLY without third party intervention. This makes UN and its resolutions redundant. But Pakistan does not recognise even this. This is the fate of all such agreements/ pacts signed by India with Pakistan, whether Tashkent, Shimla or Lahore Declaration of 1999.

Indian leadership becomes too magnanimous while dealing with Pakistan. In 1999 while Indian PM , Atal Bihari Vajpayee rode Peace Bus to Lahore, Pakistan responded by Kargil back stabbing in 1999. Even in the Agra summit of July 2001, General Pervez Mushaeff had almost trapped Indian PM with his kashmir proposal till a seasoned LK Advani came to know and he got it stalled.

In view of the above, India needs to adopt a pragmatic approach . It must tell Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders that having had spent some $ 5 Trillion on subsidy, security and infrastructure development such as roads, railways and dams, the valley of Kashmir is non- negotiable. 2018 is NOT 1947. Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders must reconcile to the valley as integral part of India. The solution lay in acceptance of LC as IB. Imran Khan must be told this in no uncertain terms. If Pakistan persists with her terrorist activities in Kashmir or other places , then it must not cry for Balochistan and Sindh. India will reciprocate. It is time for India to do the plain- speaking, whether it was Imran Khan or General Qamar Javed Bajwa or his future successors. No more magnanimity and no more treading morality path.