Sushma Swaraj’s obstinacy
THE obstinacy of the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, demonstrated by her during her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 26, 2016, has no parallel in recent times. In fact, it broke all norms of sanity and diplomacy. Her blatant claim at the world forum that occupied Kashmir is an integral part of India is outright disrespect shown by her not only to the UN Resolution of 1948, on occupied Kashmir, but also to the prestige and honour of the world body.
Her claim vis-à-vis Indian held Kashmir and her tirade vis-à-vis the issue of terrorism in occupied Kashmir, allegedly being undertaken by Pakistan, are nothing but a figment of her and her government’s wild imagination. While laying her government’s claim on occupied Kashmir, as an integral part of India, Sushma Swaraj forgot the fact that occupied Kashmir remains a disputed territory according to the UN Resolution of 1948 and has to be resolved through a plebiscite in the held territory. So far as the issue of terrorism is concerned it is India that has long been a sponsor and practitioner of state terrorism against the innocent and unarmed Kashmiri people and not Pakistan; a glaring truth that is known to the entire world.
India should stop day-dreaming and start accepting the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory; it has never been and would never be an integral part of India. The war phobia that India has created and the fillip that the Indian media has given to it cannot cow down Pakistan and stop it from extending its moral and diplomatic support to the enduring, purely indigenous, freedom movement of the Kashmiri people. India must remember that her highhandedness in occupied Kashmir has made her stand completely exposed in the eyes of the world. This, in fact, is what is going to isolate India and not Pakistan in the international community.
India must appreciate that Kashmir is a long-outstanding issue and it must be resolved, through a plebiscite in the occupied territory, according to the UN Resolutions of 1948. Violence, India must realise, will only breed violence which will be detrimental not only for India and Pakistan but the entire region. Admonition of the US and the world powers that be, to India and Pakistan, to exercise restraint and seek to resolve matters through dialogue is well taken. But the world community must clearly understand that all pending issues between India and Pakistan can be resolved through diplomacy, accept the issue of Kashmir, which must be resolved in accordance with the UN Resolution of 1948. If the UN and the international community fail to quickly realise this fact, enduring peace between India and Pakistan will never be established and the entire region will remain in state of turmoil for decades to come. This obviously will not have a positive bearing on the affluent societies of the world too.
M FAZAL ELAHI
Islamabad