Let Kashmiris decide

Sir,- Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer's observation in his article `The Agra syndrome' (July 24) that the ``will' of the people on both sides of the Line Of Control (LoC) should only decide the Jammu and Kashmir issue, has not come a day soon. If the instrument of accession signed by the late king Hari Singh of Kashmir were to be the Magna Carta, then the solution to the Kashmir issue, the unfinished agenda of partition, rests on Pakistan's vacation of its illegal occupation as the former Prime Minister, Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao said once. If this were really so, India should have taken the war with the Pakistani mercenaries and insurgents to its logical conclusion of driving them out of Jammu and Kashmir without taking the issue to the United Nations and the ceasefire, which culminated in the creation of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Further it led to the much-maligned U.N. resolution seeking the conduct of a plebiscite to decide the future, to the chagrin of every Indian.

The truth is that Pakistan is not willing to vacate its forcible occupation of PoK nor is India willing to honour the U.N. resolution. How then could any agreement or declaration, be it at Shimla, Lahore or Agra, solve the problems? And how long will the two peoples have live with the problem and at what cost?

Instead of being jingoistic, India and Pakistan should allow the people of both Jammu and Kashmir and PoK to exercise their free will to decide their future to be a part of India or Pakistan or be an independent buffer state. This will be the only sane thing to do to get out of the quagmire. If India does its part, Pakistan will have no excuse to continue its proxy war or occupation of PoK.

A.S.K. Raman,

Srirangam, T.N.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Staging summits
Next     : Sanctity of LoC