On October 9, 2023, Nitish Birdi, Indian delegate to the United Nations claimed at the UN Fourth Committee ‘the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will always remain an integral part of India.’ Earlier on October 4, 2023, Dr. Kajal Bhat alleged at the Sixth Committee ‘Kashmir was an integral part of India.’ Dr. S. Jaishankar went one step ahead of both by saying, ‘Jammu-Kashmir Was, Is And Will Always Be India's Integral Part.’ Amit Shah, India’s Home Minister also joined the bandwagon when he said, “Jammu and Kashmir will truly be an integral part of India.’ Rajnath Singh, India’s Defense Ministry could not remain aloof from his compatriots, so he professed, ‘J&K will always be an integral part of India.’ All these statements are nothing but claptrap. These Indian distinguished diplomats and politicians have mastered the art of deception by creating the illusion of truth. They have well understood what Joseph Goebbels meant when he said, “Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it.”
It is fair to say that India will get nowhere by explaining Kashmir as an integral part of India. India is promoting this narrative because she trembles at any attempt to resolve the Kashmir crisis because she is frightened by its outcome. When a former Defense Minister, Krishna Menon, was questioned as to why India would never hold a free self-determination election in Kashmir, he confessed that all of India's political leaders knew it would lose. The question answers itself.
Why else must India deploy an arresting 900,000 military and paramilitary forces, making Kashmir as mentioned by Arundhati Roy, one of India’s best-known authors, “the most militarized zone on earth.” India surmised that she needed 6,000 to 12,000 troops to hold a free and fair plebiscite (referendum/election) in Kashmir during the negotiations at the Security Council in the early 1950’s.
Anyhow, these erroneous and misguided statements need to be explained from the Kashmiri perspective.
First, India knows well that she stands in flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions mandating a self-determination plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir to be conducted and monitored by the UN.
Second, Kashmir is not and cannot be regarded as an integral part of India because, under all international agreements, which were agreed by both India and Pakistan, negotiated by the United Nations, and endorsed by the Security Council, Kashmir does not belong to any member state of the United Nations. If that is true, then the claim that Kashmir is an integral part of India does not stand.
Third, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said on July 8, 2019, that both India and Pakistan should give the people of Kashmir the right to self-determination. She added that the people of Kashmir should be included in all talks between India and Pakistan. Why give Kashmiris the right to self-determination, if it is an internal matter of India?
Fourth, Mr Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General said on August 10, 2019, that the Kashmir issue has to be resolved under UN Charter and under applicable UN Security Council resolutions. Why?
Fifth, Ms. Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand told the Parliament on October 15, 2004, that, “It is perfectly obvious to the whole world that Kashmir is a flashpoint for tensions between the two countries. Most countries do not regard it as simply an internal affair.”
Sixth, the distinguished Indian delegates at the United Nations need to read a write-up by another distinguished diplomat of India, Barrister Minoo Masani, former Indian Ambassador to Brazil. His account was published in Dalit Voice, Bangalore, India on August 1, 1990. Ambassador Masani wrote, ‘A lady asked me the other day, ‘why Gorbachev would not agree to the Lithuanian demand for independence from the Soviet Union.’ I countered with the question: ‘Do you believe that Kashmir belongs to India?’ ‘Yes, of course’ she said. ‘That is why?’ I said, ‘There are too many Russians who wrongly believe that Lithuania belongs to the Soviet Union, just as you believe that Kashmir belongs to India.’
Seventh, Arundhati Roy, a prominent Indian intellectual confirmed it by saying 'It's (Kashmir) not ever been really a part of India, which is why it's ridiculous for the Indian government to keep saying it's an integral part of India.'
Eighth, Robert Bradnock of Chatham House (British Think-tank) released a survey on May 26, 2010, that 74 % to 95 % of the people of the ‘Valley of Kashmir’ want Aazadi (Independence).
Ninth, when Dr Jaishankar met Mike Pompeo, American Secretary of State in Bangkok on August 2, 2019, he told him that, any discussion on Kashmir will only be with Pakistan and only bilaterally. (The Times of India, August 3, 2019).
We remember that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the G20 delegation to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Now is the time that Modi Ji must also pay attention to the wise counsel of Gandhi ‘Kashmir's real rulers were its people and not its Maharajas.’ Modi Ji should consider himself as Maharaja.
Now is the time that world powers, including the United States, should realize that today, no issue is of greater urgency and concern than the Kashmir issue where two nuclear powers, uninhibited by any treaty constraints, glare at each other over this territory. Kashmir and Kashmir alone is the issue that has kept India and Pakistan from normalizing their relations, and it is Kashmir alone that has led to three wars, excessive militarization and nuclearization; and it is Kashmir dispute alone that has brought both India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. UN intervention is needed in Kashmir. If not now, then when?