ON the death of the Quaid-i-Azam on Sept 11, 1948, India’s Nehru seized the opportunity of the political vacuum in Pakistan to send his jackboots into Hyderabad, Deccan, on Sept 13 and militarily take over that state.

Now 70 years on, New Delhi thinks the multiparty conference held on Sept 20 has provided an opportunity to think of repeating the history in Kashmir.

India has been shelling Pakistani positions across the LoC almost daily and has adopted a jingoistic policy against Pakistan to coax it to go to war.

India has always claimed that Kashmir is an integral part of India, notwithstanding that they agreed to a UN-brokered agreement for a mutual phased withdrawal of troops to an agreed minimums as a prelude to hold a plebiscite.

This agreement was presented in the UN on Jan 5, 1949. Nehru reneged on the agreement on the grounds that the withdrawal of troops would compromise India’s security owing to arms supply from the US to Pakistan, eventually leading to this country joining the SEATO and CENTO pacts in 1953.

Dwight Eisenhower, the then US president, earnestly assured India that the pacts obliged members to come to the aid of any country attacked by a communist state, and the US would ensure that the arms are not misused or against India.

Rafi Ahmed
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2020