Daily Times

The top secret telegram Number 267 sent by Sen from Indian embassy in Washington to Bajpai in Delhi in March 1950, reveals that the UN Plebiscite Administrator Admiral Nimitz, had planned to hold a Plebiscite in Kashmir by 1st November 1950. Nimitz had been allotted a temporary office in the State Department and had the assistance of the South Asian Division Staff. Pakistani and Indian diplomats had paid him courtesy visits in turns. United Kingdom had earlier proposed that the Plebiscite should be held by October 1948.

France has stated that, “Resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949, to which we must always return because they won the express agreement of both India and Pakistan. If the parties are unable to reach agreement on the plan submitted to them, provision is made for arbitration, and, to make assurance doubly sure, arbitration is to be carried out by an arbitrator or panel of arbitrators appointed not by a political body but by the President of International Court of Justice”. (539th meeting of Security Council held on 30 March 1951).

Netherlands has argued at the 566th meeting of the Security Council held on 10 November 1951 that “The lack of agreement therefore, does not concern this right of self-determination. It concerns the ways and means and procedures to establish the conditions for a fair expression of the will of the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir who want to make their choice free from any kind of intimidation”.

What India has done on 5 August 2019, is an Albatross’s curse round its neck. India has a war at hand till a last Kashmiri is alive in Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan, in India, in Pakistan and living as a Diaspora

All arrangements for holding a free, fair and secure Plebiscite on the right of self-determination were in place. But the people of the State could not see the day. A day after tomorrow on Wednesday 5 August 2020, people living on the Indian side of cease fire line will complete one year of re-occupation and imprisonment. India has aggressed against the people. It has violated the pledges made to the people of Kashmir, to Britain and to Pakistan in October 1947 and to the United Nations Security Council in January 1948.

Government of India has placed itself on a burning pyre in Kashmir. It may have felt a bit comfortable, because Government of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, has not been smart enough and credible enough from 5 November 1965 to turn India into a Christmas turkey. UN Security Council Documents S/1996/603 dated 2 August 1996 and S/1996/603 dated 22 August 1996, say it all.

Government of Azad Kashmir, does not have a road map of any manner in discharging the responsibilities assumed under UNCIP Resolutions. It has even failed to submit itself to discharge the obligations in respect of Self-Determination specified under Section 8 of Act 1970 and Section 11 of Act 1974. Government of Pakistan remained indecisive for 32 years from 1965 to 1996 and Government of Azad Kashmir has continued to ignore its constitutional duties from 1970 to date for the last 50 years.

What India has done on 5 August 2019, is an Albatross’s curse round its neck. India has a war at hand till a last Kashmiri is alive in Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan, in India, in Pakistan and living as a Diaspora. It does not mean that Pakistan would be able to afford to dither for long or err to step down from her political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir. Government of Azad Kashmir would not be able to wash its hands clean of its UNCIP responsibilities.

India succeeded to lure our politics and militancy into a cul de sac. Indian army and Indian political discipline does not have any future in the Indian administered part of Kashmir. All vestiges of its support have been washed away and as Yashwant Sinha has put it, it is the Indian military might that keeps India in Kashmir. We know that no army on earth has ever won a war against a people. India is no exception to this rule.

It is a tragedy that Government of Pakistan, its Foreign Office, Kashmir Committee and intra-agency disciplines have yet to decide about a ‘pointed’ and a ‘proportionate’ response to Indian actions in Kashmir. One does not need to hire a Diogenes to smell the non interest and blatant corruption in the name of Kashmir at various levels in Azad Kashmir. If one peels the upper layer of Azad Kashmir Liberation Cell, its recruitment, calibre of people employed and the mediocre exhibits of routine and wasteful actions, tell it all. Every discipline of life is taxed to raise the budget for Kashmir Liberation Cell. If at all some needy people or party loyals had to be helped out, they could have been suckled from “Zakat Fund” and not “Kashmir Liberation”.

During the Corona lockdowns and prevailing social distancing, the failed Kashmir Conferences culture, has been revived by a free for all “Zoom Conferences” race and every household has an event. Organisers compete to have the President of Azad Kashmir as the ‘chief guest’ and he obliges without a wink.

It is a misdirected activity. After the three UN reports of June 2018, May 2019 and July 2019, there is hardly anything that we could add on the subject of Indian atrocities in Kashmir. Therefore, Zoom Conferences, may be an exit ramp for some, but it does not impress me and others like me, who have families, friends and neighbours imprisoned by around 900000 Indian occupation forces. India has hurt us.

We need to find an anti-dote to Indian aggression, re-occupation and imprisonment of the people. It is a straightforward case of a violation of the UN Charter, violation of agreed UN Security Council Resolutions, violation of the programme agreed under UNCIP Resolutions and a violation of the terms, under which Indian army has been temporarily admitted into a part of Kashmir. The anti-dote has been proposed by Netherlands and France. The positive duty of the Security Council as proposed by US has to assume itself against Indian unlawful actions. Government of Pakistan and Government of Azad Kashmir, have to visit their assumed responsibilities under UNCIP Resolutions. We will complement their efforts at all levels of our influence.

The author is President of London based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations