No sooner than a new government is in power, the Thug is back in action. This time he makes no secret–no hiding behind a veil of words–of his intentions: Kashmir runs in our blood. Indeed!
In saying so, Musharaff has effectively said: Kashmir belongs to Pakistan. It’s what everybody knew but nobody dared to say aloud. The perpetual thorn in our flesh. The strategy is clear–and what I say is nothing new–escalate violence, keep issuing statements, tell a lie a million times till it is accepted as the truth, and finally, get the weak-kneed Indian government to say, “to hell with you. You’ll leave us alone if we grant you Kashmir, right? Fine then, take it, but leave us in peace.” From a meagre strip of land that the Pakis occupied (illegally) in the initial years after independence, the map today shows a separate Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, which is a straight slap on the face of India. No one including Vajpayee has had the guts to evict the occupants.
And the occupation is bound to continue with Musharaff speaking in such terms as
Reiterating that Pakistan would continue to give moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmir is [...]The President said that the demands of the Kashmiri people cannot be suppressed and asked India to check “state terrorism” and human rights violations in the Valley. [...] At the same time, he warned India against any military action, saying that Pakistan was ready to reply blow for blow.
Don’t we know what kind of moral, diplomatic and political support he would extend to Kashmiris? Of course, Kashmir does run in the Pakis’ blood. Although methinks he primarily made this statement with a view to secure widespread support, I suspect with good reason that there’s more than meets the eye. For one, Musharaff by making this speech wants to divert peoples’ attention away from serious internal problems he faces today, especially after the Talibans massacred several of his brave soliders.
The significance of this in-our-blood statement reminds me of something I read a couple of years ago on the Kashmir issue. The author said, Kashmir is the consequence of Indo-Pak tensions rather than the cause for it. I agree in toto. Picture this: imagine India giving away Kashmir on a platter to Pakistan in exchange for peace in the subcontinent. Will Pakistan say, “well, we’ve got what we wanted, let’s leave India alone?” Not a chance in a million. They’ll set their sights on some other mischief, a la Kashmir, and so it’ll go on.
If anybody has read non-Marxist Indian history, it is an inescapable conclusion that India remains the unrealized bit of the Grand Mughal/Islamic Dream of bringing India under the fold of Dar-ul-Islam. India, with its 800 million Hindus stares as strong evidence of defeat of the Islamic conquerors. What else can explain a separate Muslim state–Pakistan–in a region that, before their arrival, retained a cultural/spiritual unity as distinct from geographic unity? What else explains the fact that today Pakistan proudly claims to be the torchbearer of Islam in South East Asia (sic) and garners massive funding from other Islamic nations?
The only way out of the Kashmir mess–I’ve said this earlier and still hold the same conviction–is to reclaim the entire Kashmir, and send a (violent, if necessary) message to Pakistan not to bother us again.
But that won’t happen because our leaders have followed (and continue to do so) a policy of appeasement. The problem with it is that the Appeased keeps escalating his/her demands.
I wish Sardar Patel hadn’t died so early.
Update: I’ve removed the map because for formatting/layout reasons. It’ll be up soon.
Tags: Terrorism & Pakistan
On 06.09.04 Kingsley says:
OT: If you want help importing your entries, zip up your backups and mail them to me at my Gmail account.
On 06.10.04 Nitin says:
Sandeep - way to go, man!
On 06.10.04 The Acorn says:
Pipeline possibilities
Get Real Talk about gas pipeline connecting Iran’s gas fields to India’s booming economy has gathered pace in recent weeks. The overland route of the pipeline would traverse Pakistan - including the restive Balochistan province - and allow the Pakistan…
On 06.10.04 Amit Kulkarni says:
Sandeep,
Check your facts about China and Aksai Chin. It is not illegal occupation by China, Nehru overreached himself in claiming that territory. It was no-man’s land technically. I have the original Army report after the 1962 war dug up by some reporter in PDF format if you want to have a look. I am not sure where I downloaded it from but it is informative. Nehru is potrayed as living in some kind of fairy tale world.
I do not blame China for trying to secure a land route from Xinjiang to Tibet after 1950. It is a reality of life we have to accept. India’s politicians are as good as foxes in corruption, but not good at all as wolves, able to defend and extend their territorial claims. If they had perceived that China WOULD need to annex Aksai Chin to link the two provinces, India should have occupied it. Indira seems to have learnt a lesson as we have also done the same in Siachen, it was no-man’s land but her motive was to stop Pakistan from claiming it as its territory. Let us all get real, there is no possibility of getting the land back. I maintain that if China wanted to invade us they would have done so earlier when we had no nukes.
We should do the same in Kashmir, treat it the same as China does, by trying to integrate it economically into the rest of the country by building rails/mroe roads. Treating it different is what is causign the problem.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/21spec.htm
http://www.livinginindia.com/economy/archives/000123.html
http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard/uploads/1962war.htm
On 06.10.04 Sandeep says:
Amit,
Thanks for the informative stuff. Actually, as I’ve indicated, my source for the map is Indiacause.com. I’ve used their image and as such haven’t verified the Chinese part of it because I wanted to highlight POK in the context of this blog entry.
Thanks again for bringing this up.
On 06.11.04 praveen says:
I used to remember the time in shcool, when in a question paper, it was asked to list india’s neighbours. For that question, I also listed Afghanistan along with other obvious neighbouring countries. The Indian map I had seen then had a strip of afghanistan touching Jammu and Kashmir on the top corner.
It was only later I came to know that Pakistan had a huge chunk of that land under their control for a long time (as in the map) and India’s actual map looked different. Even china had occupied a lot of land, deemed by us to be Indian territory. For the Kashmir issue, I think converting the Line of Actual control to International border will be the ideal solution [link]
On 06.11.04 Sandeep says:
Praveen,
Welcome back! where’ve you been?
Right. Problem is we’re still seen as a soft state (euphemism for “cowardly state”) unable to stand up for ourselves despite several strengths. Oh no! If that is done, I guess we’ve effectively lost any say in the matter.
On 06.11.04 Praveen says:
Thanks Sandeep. I am trying again to be a regular.
Unfortunately we are a soft state. The leaders we have had so far have not learned their lessons from the world around them. But I havent given up hope, one day we will be out of this.
But with Kashmir, I dont think we have any other practical option. The dispute pakistan is having is about the Kashmir region in Indian control. Even Indian government rarely mentions the kashmir in Pakistani control, as it has been under their control since 1947-48. I dont think even if we take over that part militarily, people there will be happy aboout it. In short, its not ours anymore. But even to achive solution of changing the LAC to international border, we will have to arm-twist pakistan.(some people never change)
On 12.12.06 The Acorn » A fractional part of Pakistan says:
[...] “Kashmir”, the General had declared, “runs in our blood”. Whatever. Permalink | « The clash of convictions and the remaking of the world ofwars | Home | [...]