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AMID a clandestine moot on Kashmir in the comfy and cozy environs of London, a few days ago, India’s new Foreign Minister Natwar Singh has said that India and Pakistan need to get over their obsessions with Kashmir. In an interview published at the weekend, he said that it will be difficult to proceed if Kashmir is the only agenda. ‘Let us progress on other issues as we discuss Kashmir through a high-level mechanism of the kind we have with China’, he said.

Natwar Singh’s interview represents Congress Party’s traditional policy, known as JL Nehru-Style of placing things in ‘cold storage’ or if other-way phrased as gaining time to strengthen the Indian hold over occupied Kashmir. The uprising that has overtaken the Kashmir Valley over the past fourteen years has, however, placed this issue in totally different perspective.

The fact that about 700,000 Indian troops deployed in occupied Kashmir have failed to contain or counter the Kashmiris’ liberation struggle amply speaks that time has changed. Natwar Singh’s contention of China model of relations with Pakistan is irrelevant and is, in fact, a bid to sidetrack the Kashmir issue, which is the root cause of tension between the two countries. What are the other issues, which Natwar Singh wants to give priority to? President Musharraf has termed them as irritants.

The real issue is Kashmir that needs to be addressed and addressed expeditiously. It cannot be side-stepped because it pertains to the destiny of the Kashmiri people and recognised internationally as the nuclear flashpoint. The two countries have fought wars and have remained in a state of conflict and confrontation over the past half a century on this particular issue. Besides, there has been enough of bloodshed in the occupied Valley. It’s, therefore, no time to beat about the bush but to address the core issue, if there is any element of sincerity on India’s part. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also reportedly said in a statement that plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the Kashmiri people is unacceptable to India.

At the same time, there is no let-up in oppression and repression against the Kashmiris. The situation is thus seemingly heading towards square one. These are certainly not the encouraging signs and belie the initial overtures of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for normalization of relations with Pakistan. There ought to be no misconception about the fact that Kashmir is the core issue and peace between the two countries hinges upon its resolution. And sooner it is resolved the better for all stakeholders including India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

While, we intend to slice up the despicable motives of the May-29 London moot, which was perceptibly ‘arranged’ with a hefty amount under the umbrella of ‘intra-Kashmir Dialogue’—shortly—we are left with no words but to censure the hapless posture of all those who attended this convex assemblage of a few sets of people who have—virtually—no representative character vis-à-vis the aspirations of the people of the charismatic Himalayan State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Whereas we feel uptight that such a contentious and touchy ‘moot’ was ‘addressed’ even by a plaintiff and champion of the Kashmir Cause, Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, we salute the media in Pakistan—which gave no significance to this moot, the upshot of which is still confined to its’ ‘organizers’.

World knows very well that Pakistan has left no podium on the Orb, where it did not come-out with a categorical standpoint on Kashmir and that too reflecting the aspirations of the people of the State and in line with the globally-acknowledged resolutions of the United Nations on the Issue, which India seems all set to sideline—once again. With this perception, such a meeting comes into view—nothing beyond yet another ploy. It would, thus be apt that all those who participated in this moot from Pakistan and Azad Kashmir are ought to be indexed in an ‘exclusive catalog’ so as to assess and determine the magnitude of the real intentions plus their credentials—as patriots.

Last but not the least, we wish that by keeping her status and stature in the polity of Pakistan, at least the PPP chief, Ms Benazir Bhutto would not have gone to such ‘get-together’—for which she owes to elucidate her viewpoint to the nation—but with a bona fide justification.

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