Opinion The Auld Enemy
It is a uniquely Indian dish. Border troubles across the LoC and communal riots in Jammu and Kashmir.
It is a uniquely Indian dish. Border troubles across the LoC and communal riots in Jammu and Kashmir. All the unsolvable issues arising from Independence and Partition come together on a platter just in time for the 66th anniversary. If only we could renegotiate a new settlement under British referees!
But no such luck. India has its perennial twin problemsPakistan and J&K. They are intertwined. One cannot be solved without the other. Neither can be solved without undoing the Partition. The Partition cannot be undone by invading Pakistan and taking it over even if that was easy,which it never was. It can be done only by reconciliation and talking to each other. That however is impossible given the pressures of politics in both countries. Each nation lives,indeed thrives on its hatred of the other.
A sagacious philosopher friendof Indian origin,which is why I will not reveal his namesuggested that India should give Kashmir to Pakistan. His logic was that since Pakistan was united as a nation only due to its sense of loss of Kashmir (to which I can attest),getting Kashmir will make Pakistan fall apart. Maybe. But what if Pakistan did the same with Azad Kashmir? How would India handle that? Where would be the need to plank a large Army,shut off mobile and Internet frequently and,arbitrarily,enforce the AFSPA and feel virtuous vis-a-vis Pakistan about our secularism? The united two halves of Kashmir may even become stronger in their demand for azadi and insist on a genuine plebiscite as was promised. India may then have to invade Kashmir and occupy it all over again.
Every prime minister of India,from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh,has aspired to be the statesman who settles the dispute with Pakistan. Future prime ministers may join the queue. Three prime ministersLal Bahadur Shastri,Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayeehave had to battle Pakistan and win,though without teaching Pakistan any lesson about not repeating the mistake. So neither jaw-jaw nor war-war has been a solution to this perennial problem.
Nor have we found a way of ruling J&K peaceably. Of course it is all their fault. They would want separation,their azadi. Why cannot they be happy with what they have got? We have fractured their democracy,imposed and sacked not a few prime ministers and then bequeathed dynastic rule to make them feel truly Indian. So what if the Chief Minister grew up in the UK; Katrina Kaif is no better. We value Kashmir as an integral part of India so much so that we have placed a large Army permanently there unlike anywhere else in India,thus making the rest of the country not an integral part! It has taken us only 66 years to establish a rail link unlike the Chinese who have built a rail link from Baltistan to the Arabian Sea coast even though they dont own the territory. It has also taken 66 years for a Kashmiri to make it to the Indian cricket team,but then how were we to know that they played cricket? No Kashmiri multi-millionaire has a franchise with IPL.
So what if there is youth unemployment? We have appointed many committees to report on that though no one remembers what those committees said or did. Kashmiris may have problems getting visas to go abroad until they can prove they are not related to terrorists,which is difficult because if they were not all terrorists (by definition),why would the Army be stationed there?
India is as schizophrenic about Kashmir as Pakistan is. Each wants the Valley regardless of the views of the people who live there. When the country was divided in British India,legislators were to be consulted and that too only in Punjab and Bengal. Princely states were different; they could be bargained away by their rulers. Both countries wanted Kashmir on arbitrary grounds. Each has now got a slice and continues to behave like the Old Raja. Both know their guilt about hurrying to Partition; Kashmiris have to pay the price for that guilt. This show will run and run.
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