India’s stunt

India and Pakistan are in a sputter over Kashmir. The Foreign Office has taken strong exception to the comments from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, in which the latter had criticised the mention of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute in a joint statement from Pakistan and China. Beijing, in the communique, had reiterated that the “Jammu and Kashmir dispute is left over from history, and should be properly and peacefully resolved.” New Delhi, however, played to the gallery by not just criticising the wording of the resolution, but going a step ahead to castigate the multi-billion dollar CPEC project. It rejected the “unwarranted references to Jammu and Kashmir”, proclaiming that “any move to legitimise Islamabad’s … occupation of territory” is unacceptable. This utterance from India is nothing but negating the ground realities, and a bizarre attempt to hoodwink the public opinion.

Islamabad, nonetheless, was apt in reminding Delhi that it should “not mislead the international community on CPEC”, as it is between two sovereign nations, and it would rather be appropriate for India “to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir”. It hit the nail on the head by elucidating that Jammu and Kashmir has been an internationally-recognised disputed territory for the last seven decades, and the will of the people is in need of being ascertained to seek a permanent solution, and that too under the auspices of the United Nations. Thus, any beating about the bush, by calling it either an internal issue of India, or one that is not up for debate, is akin to defying logic, conventions and international law, per se.

It’s high time for India to act and react in accordance with its growing image as a progressive economy and a regional power. By keeping glued to the baggage of an adamant attitude and by denying the Kashmir dispute on whims and wishes, Delhi is doing a disservice to regional peace and security. The continued rejection of India’s illegal occupation, manifested by an enduring freedom struggle in the held valley, is the writing on the wall.