Kashmiris have all along been sacrificing their lives for azadi (freedom)
RAWALPINDI: India held a referendum in Sikkim on April 14th, 1975 to confirm Sikkim Assembly’s resolution (1937-74) on ‘merger with India’. A plebiscite was held in disputed Junagadh on February 20th, 1948 after the administration of the state was taken over by India in November 1947. But, no plebiscite has been held in the disputed territory of Kashmir. The promise stands enshrined in the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolution dated January 5th, 1949 Para 51 (Serial 1196). Now some critics say plebiscite is no longer ‘practical or possible’. They argue that Kashmir is different from Junagadh or Sikim. But why? Because Kashmir has a Muslim majority. And the outcome of the plebiscite, now or in 1947, is obvious: accession to Pakistan.
The Kashmiris have all along been sacrificing their lives for azadi (freedom). To deflect the freedom movement against Pakistan, Indian writers point out that Pakistan (through Sir Zafarullah) excluded the provision of independence from the UNCIP resolutions. But, they do not mention Article 257 of the Pakistan Constitution that says “When the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that State shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State.”
If India did not act upon plebiscite resolution sanctified by the United Nation’s authority, who would make India abide by it. India did not agree even to the Pervez Musharraf Kashmir proposal as a signature, short win-win solution. This proposal, if anything, was a plagiarism of Indian former foreign secretary Jagat S Mehta’s ideas presented in his article titled ‘Resolving Kashmir in the international context of the 1990s’ (quoted in Robert G Wirsing’s India, Pakistan and the Kashmir Dispute, 1994).
Let us not forget Kashmir concerns fate of people who, with wistful eyes, have been awaiting a plebiscite for over seven decades.
Amjed Jaaved
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2017.
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