CAN ICJ UNTIE ‘K’ KNOT
As India-Pakistan ties worsen, mired in bloody clashes with Pakistan army irregulars and a militant backed surge in street violence, India - shockingly - broke with past practice to take the case of alleged 'spy' Kulbushan Jadhav, sentenced to death by a
The move by New Delhi to approach the ICJ in alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Jadhav’s case has set off alarm bells in various circles in India about the possible reference by Pakistan of the Kashmir issue to the ICJ, a scenario considered to be suicidal by many. Such reaction is, to say the least, misdirected.
New Delhi today may not have a military, diplomatic, economic or political solution to comprehensively resolve the Kashmir issue. Rather, New Delhi’s Kashmir policy has been to tighten New Delhi’s grip on the part of the state with it by emasculating the state’s autonomy guaranteed by Article 370 of the Constitution, and to hand over the Kashmir Valley to security forces to maintain law and order under the shield of draconian penal laws of dubious constitutional validity like AFSPA, TADA and so on and so forth. The security forces, who did not create the Kashmir issue and do not have a solution for it, have no option but to carry out the directives of their political masters to contain the violence that now has schoolgirls pelt stones at security forces. Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
But, if New Delhi wants to seriously attempt to resolve the Kashmir issue, it must aim to change the current political discourse on this vexed problem, both internationally and nationally. Given India’s past experience of the UNSC, one can understand the concerns of Indian observers at the prospect of taking the Kashmir issue to the ICJ. But then, the Kashmir problem is an international issue – it cannot but be one when the state is under the control of three sovereign countries, India, Pakistan and China. New Delhi can keep harping about J&K being an integral part of India – the rest of the world simply does not agree. Moreover, New Delhi’s Kashmir policy will not make Pakistan, or China, vacate the part of J&K occupied by them. New Delhi would, therefore, need to take concrete steps to break the political stalemate that has existed with Pakistan and China for decades.
It is against this backdrop that one must consider whether taking the Kashmir issue to the ICJ is a viable option. It is, in my opinion, the first step towards a resolution of the Kashmir problem for the reasons given in my doctoral thesis way back in 2001 and in my book, Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, published last year.
Modern day India and Pakistan are creations of the Partition agreement of 3 June 1947, crystallized in British statutes. However, as per these very statutes, all the princely states were to regain full sovereignty and such sovereignty vested in the ruler, regardless of the religious complexion of the people of the state concerned. It was the ruler alone who could decide to accede to India, Pakistan or remain independent. These British statutes were accepted by both India and Pakistan. Indeed, there is no doubt about the legitimacy of the states of India and Pakistan created by such statutes, and that such statutes comprised the constitutional law governing both India and Pakistan.
The sovereign ruler of J&K unconditionally acceded to India on October 26, 1947, in the manner prescribed under the constitutional law that created India and Pakistan and was accepted by India and Pakistan. New Delhi viewed the accession as being ‘purely provisional’ and subject to the wishes of the people. By doing so, New Delhi overlooked that once a political decision (the Partition Agreement) had been crystallized into law (i.e the British statutes), the executive created by that law cannot act contrary to the terms of that very law. It is well settled that a state cannot, by making promises, clothe itself with authority which is inconsistent with the constitution that gave it birth. The constitutional law creating modern day India mandated that it was only the sovereign ruler who could decide on the accession of his state to India. New Delhi had no power to lay down a contrary policy that the accession would be decided by the wishes of the people. Since the accession of J&K to India was in terms of the same constitutional law that also created Pakistan, it would be fair to say that the law that gave birth to Pakistan itself made J&K a part of India. Ot is not open in international law for a state (Pakistan) to challenge the accession made by a sovereign state (J&K) to another sovereign state (India), such accession being an Act of State. The ruler of J&K has never challenged the accession as being fraudulent or based on violence. Rather, he acceded to India unconditionally in the three areas of external affairs, defence and communications.
The UN, and every state ‘contracting’ with India (including Pakistan) are held in international law to have had the knowledge that New Delhi exceeded its powers under the said constitutional law by pledging to hold a plebiscite in J&K to settle the question of accession, and, that too, in the absence of its sovereign ruler. As a result, not only was New Delhi’s ‘pledge’ of holding the plebiscite in J&K unconstitutional and not binding on India, the UNSC resolutions for holding the plebiscite were themselves without jurisdiction and in violation of the UN Charter.
But then, it was New Delhi that had, in the first place, created doubts about the unconditional nature of the accession of J&K to India, internationalized the Kashmir issue and conferred a disputed territory status on J&K. It was New Delhi which consequently enabled the separatists, Pakistan and other countries to argue till date that it is a ‘freedom struggle’ that was underway in Kashmir. Therefore, it is New Delhi that needs, as a first step, to confirm, as it were, its title deeds to J&K so as to remove the ‘disputed territory’ tag on J&K.
The only body in existence whose pronouncement will be considered as being authoritative and having legal effect on the international community is the principal judicial organ of the UN, namely, the ICJ. Since India is entitled in law to the entire territory of J&K, it lies in India’s interest to have the ICJ examine the Kashmir issue, regardless of the issue of enforceability of ICJ decisions or the dynamics of international politics. Such examination is not precluded by the Simla Agreement or any other bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan.
And so, New Delhi should not shy away from taking the Kashmir issue to the ICJ, it being a convenient way of depoliticizing the matter. While the Kashmir issue is certainly a political one, it is possible for New Delhi to separate the legal from the political aspect of the issue, so that it can vindicate its claim to the entire territory of J&K based on legal rights.
If the ICJ gives a verdict in India’s favour, and it is likely to do so in view of the legal principles (formulated in the book), the very presence of Pakistan and China in the territory of J&K would constitute ‘aggression’ under international law, and the international community would be under an obligation to put an end to that illegal situation as illustrated by the 1971 ICJ decision in Namibia. No country can then extend even ‘moral’ support to the supposed ‘freedom struggle’ in Kashmir. New Delhi would like nothing more than for the international community to pressurize Pakistan to vacate its aggression and to stop cross-border terrorism. But for that to happen, New Delhi must first obtain a finding from the ICJ confirming the entire territory of J&K to be a part of India. In the unlikely event that the ICJ decides against India by opining that the future of J&K will be decided by the wishes of the people, New Delhi still stands to lose nothing. New Delhi has always maintained that the people of J&K have endorsed the accession, as is evident from the resolution of February 15, 1954, of the elected state Constituent Assembly. The Assembly, which had been set up in 1951 by the sovereign ruler of J&K, framed the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir of 1957 declaring J&K as an integral part of India. It is true that law alone cannot resolve the Kashmir issue, but a confirmation of the legal position by the ICJ will help alter the political discourse and swing political opinion in India’s favour to create a momentum for winning the confidence of the people of the state. New Delhi must take steps to regain the moral authority to be in J&K and to undo past mistakes, its success being dependent on the character of the Indian State and of the men and women who run it.