ONE of India-held Kashmir’s former chief ministers had the courage to acknowledge the reality when he said the entire Indian army would not be able to defend “us against terrorists and militants” — his description for those struggling to liberate the occupied territory from India.
Sections of the Indian media went after Farooq Abdullah’s skin, especially for his view that “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” — the Indian nomenclature for Azad Kashmir — would remain with Pakistan while the territory under New Delhi’s control would stay that way.
Even though the latter opinion is contrary to Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, Mr Abdullah received a lot of flak for what appeared to critics as his endorsement of Islamabad’s position on the disputed territory.
Also read: Even all Indian troops can’t tackle militants, says Farooq Abdullah
Later, Mr Abdullah attempted to ‘clarify’ his remarks by saying his views were not new and that he had always believed in a dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi.
Mr Abdullah believed that neither side could solve the issue militarily because Pakistan and India were both nuclear powers.
As to the statement by the territory’s deputy chief minister that a 1994 parliamentary resolution had declared Azad Kashmir to be a part of India, Mr Abdullah said there were countless UN resolutions as well, but had “any of those been implemented?”
India’s refusal to talk to Pakistan merely points to a head that is buried deep in the sand. While Pakistan’s position on the dispute is grounded in reality, Islamabad has still shown a remarkable degree of flexibility and floated a number of ideas to resolve the issue peacefully.
For instance, the proposals made by Pervez Musharraf seemed to break new ground — something in which Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh saw utility after he was no more in power. Instead of bashing the son of Sheikh Abdullah ‘the lion of Kashmir’, the Indian establishment and the right-wing media still under the BJP’s victory trance should have the wisdom to grasp the essence of the former chief minister’s remarks — that the will of the people of Kashmir cannot be crushed by brute force.
Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015