Apocryphal or true one doesn’t know but an interesting story is doing rounds in Delhi media circles in the context of on-going India-Pakistan dialogue. When his Pakistani counterpart asked the National Security Advisor Mr. Narayanan did India mean to make the Line of Control a permanent border by saying that the borders cannot be redrawn, prompt came the reply that the reference was to the borders that existed in 1947 and not the LOC. If that is a fact, there could be nothing more shocking for the Pakistani official.
India has reason to adopt such a hard posture vis-à-vis Pakistan. In fact, it is accused of following a very soft line vis-à-vis Kashmir by having brought it to the negotiating table. Gone are the days when it used to say ‘hands off Kashmir; it is an integral part of India; if there is any dispute it is regarding the part of Jammu and Kashmir illegally occupied by Pakistan’.
On the one hand Pakistan is swearing by the peace process initiated by India about three years ago and on the other hand, it is not only inciting terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir but also propping the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. According to Indian accounts it is running 59 such training camps in the area even today. While many of these camps were demolished in last year’s earthquake these have been revived. Besides, nine camps are new ones. Lashkar -e- Taiba and the Jaish-e- Mohammad, which have owned responsibility for the terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, are thriving in Pakistan and the part of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by it. So nothing is left to doubt.
When India asks for the repatriation of Dawood Ibrahim wanted in the Mumbai serial blasts case of 1993 along with 37 others, Pakistan counters with a list of 58 militants supposedly hiding in India. Who does not know that Dawood Ibrahim is living a normal life in Karachi? If Pakistan has been feigning that it has no knowledge of his presence there, it is only trying to hoodwink the international community.
Look at Pakistan’s audacity. At one point, when India gave a list of 20 known hard core militants for repatriation, Pakistan wanted the then Indian Home Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Lal Krishan Advani to be handed over to it as there was a case registered against him in a Pakistani police station before the partition of the country in 1947. When India asks Pakistan to stop aiding and abetting terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, it charges India of supporting what it calls the “rebels” in Baluchistan.
When it comes to sorting out the Siachen dispute, Pakistan refuses to demarcate the Actual Ground Position before the troops are withdrawn. India has been insisting on authentication just in case Pakistan chooses to reoccupy the positions once Indian troops are withdrawn. After all, The Kargil incident is still fresh in our mind.
That the recent violence in Kashmir was sparked off at a time when the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Srinagar to talk to the public representatives to resolve the Kashmir issue, is no less significant. Pakistan has been claiming that it wants a peaceful and negotiated resolution of the Kashmir issue but in practice has been preventing any such solution to emerge.
On the face of it Pakistan has been posing as a well wisher of the people of Kashmir but on the other has been prompting the terrorists to renew their attacks on the tourists, the mainstay of the state’s economy. It wants to make it sure that the economy of the state does not thrive and that the people continue to live a life of misery and deprivation. Where then is the sympathy for the people of Kashmir that it has been talking about? That the attacks take place on the Anti - terrorism day is no less significant.
In contrast, Prime Minister acceded to almost everything that the public representatives, belonging to different political parties voiced their concerns about at the Round Table Conference. He promised that there would be zero tolerance of Human Rights Violations and custodial deaths, steps would be taken for the re-settlement of misguided youth who went to Pakistan for terrorist training and now want to return to the state, and the cases of detenues would be reviewed for release. He assured the people that the mechanism to strengthen the secular and democratic base of the state and ensure that the rule of law would prevail. Above all the demands of self- rule and autonomy would be discussed and looked into for better governance.
There is of course some forward movement also and everything is not entirely dark on the India-Pak theatre. The periodic exchange of prisoners, the opening up of routes across the line of control, the recent agreement to allow trade between the two parts of Kashmir are a few welcome developments. These are the steps that keep the hope for better relations between the two countries alive. But things can not be restricted to such few steps alone. We have to built on these. But more than that the attitudes need to change. That alone can make the efforts meaningful and result oriented.
Courtesy : Syndicate Features
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