An open letter to the people of India on the Kashmir issue

[nForce]

Its a insult for pure Kashmiri to be associated with India. Nothing personal just a fact.

Oh yeah?? What is this ? Mother-in-law syndrome? Its a fact... why so? Because my mother-in-law told me so...

 

[dawn_news]

Oh yeah?? What is this ? Mother-in-law syndrome? Its a fact... why so? Because my mother-in-law told me so...

Stop babling, you asked why he talk to Indians as second person. Because he don't consider himself Indian and no pure Kashmiri want to associate with India.

 

[nForce]

Stop babling, you asked why he talk to Indians as second person. Because he don't consider himself Indian and no pure Kashmiri want to associate with India.

I hate to explain my own sarcasms, but that is inevitable while talking to retarded fellows.Let me put this in a different way, easier way.Did you take the consensus of the Kashmiris already?May be you can share some reports that the entire world is completely oblivious about....
For those, who don't want to associate themselves with India, they are free to get the hell out and go to the land of suicide bombings, I couldn't care less.

 

[dawn_news]

I hate to explain my own sarcasms, but that is inevitable while talking to retarded fellows.Let me put this in a different way, easier way.Did you take the consensus of the Kashmiris already?May be you can share some reports that the entire world is completely oblivious about....
For those, who don't want to associate themselves with India, they are free to get the hell out and go to the land of suicide bombings, I couldn't care less.

Pure Kashmiris don't want anything to do with Bharat, this is well known fact. Neither they allow hindus to settle in kashmir. They want to merger with land of pure.

 

[nForce]

Pure Kashmiris don't want anything to do with Bharat, this is well known fact. Neither they allow hindus to settle in kashmir. They want to merger with land of pure.

Well known fact? I dont see any evidence suggesting that the majority supports your claim.
Okay, lets for a moment, assume that you are correct.But I don't see anything happening in the last 60 or so years.What does that tell you?
I know that the East Pakistanis wanted a separate country for themselves, and voila!! we all know about Bangladesh.That took less than a year.. Now that's what I call a 'fact'. You know why?Because it is supported by reality..
Enjoy living in that parallel Universe of yours where pigs have wings.

 

[Mighty Caty]

• View attachment 24555
  The HinduHurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

India
Jammu and Kashmir

politics (general)
political development

Along with your votes, give your elected leadership the task of resolving the Kashmir Issue once and for all.

To the People of India,

India’s elections have begun and you are exercising your votes to choose your new political representatives. Whoever you end up electing will be momentously placed to exercise real leadership and take the difficult decisions that are needed to shape a better course for the future of India and for peace in South Asia.

In this regard, there are two clear paths ahead, each with very different outcomes. Your newly elected representatives (those in power and those in opposition) could collectively resolve to take a bold and visionary break from the past and could work together to pursue a serious political and diplomatic effort to resolve the Kashmir issue. Alternatively, they could relinquish their collective leadership responsibilities and choose to follow the same old default policy approach that has allowed the Kashmir issue to fester for more than six decades now, placing the region on the dangerous trajectory that it is currently heading towards. Ultimately, the direction that the next elected leadership of India will take vis-à-vis the Kashmir issue largely depends on all of you — the people of India — and on how effectively you can influence and support your political leaders to do what is both possible and necessary for peace.

Not an isolated issue

We urge you to recognise that the Kashmir issue is not a peripheral or isolated one. You must understand and become seized of this important matter. In the past we made many attempts to reach out to you personally and apprise you of the Kashmir issue and the grim situation on the ground, but all these efforts were thwarted by the use of brute force and hooliganism, and on many occasions we were manhandled. The Kashmir issue continues to destroy life and obliterate the rights and aspirations of our people in Kashmir who desire only to live free, peaceful and dignified lives. The continuation of this tragic conflict is also a direct threat to your interests and well-being as a people. In one way or another, this tragic conflict directly affects all the other issues that are currently being discussed and debated in the election season in India. You have a direct stake in seeing that a just and lasting resolution of the Kashmir issue is reached. The conflict is not only a threat to millions of Kashmiris, it is a serious hazard for the one billion-plus population of India and for the population of the entire region. There is no better time than now to press your representatives to exercise their leadership to resolve the Kashmir issue.

A peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue would unleash immense prosperity and economic benefits for India and for the entire South Asia Region. Unfortunately, rather than pursuing a political solution in Kashmir, successive governments in New Delhi have continued to waste your taxes and precious economic resources to pursue a militaristic policy on Kashmir. At huge economic and human cost, this approach represents a failed policy. It has only ended up deepening the conflict. Today, it should be a matter of great concern to all of you that India ranks 136 in the UN Human Development Index (HDI), but has distinguished itself as the world’s largest importer of arms by a huge margin. While India’s economic growth has slowed in the last few years, arms imports have increased by a phenomenal 111 per cent in the past five years. This is draining your economy, while filling the coffers of other countries that are benefiting as arms exporters.

Indeed, the Kashmir conflict is a direct threat to your prosperity. With more than 800 million people in India still living on less than $2 (Rs. 120) a day, surely the estimated $37-47 billion a year that goes as military expenditure (which is 2 to 2.5 per cent of GDP) could be put to much better use towards initiatives to lift more and more people out of poverty. If the Kashmir issue is resolved, not only would this costly arms race come to an end, it would open up the multipliers of economic cooperation and trade. Certainly, ensuring lasting peace and stability is the greatest foundation for your future prosperity, economic growth and development.

You must ask your leaders why after so many decades, military approaches have failed to resolve the Kashmir issue. Today, this conflict is a direct threat to the security and stability of the entire region. It is the main driver of militarisation and regional instability, and there is every possibility that the situation could escalate and worsen in the coming years. If the Government of India continues to avoid a political solution to the conflict, if it insists on the continuation of the same unjust and hegemonic approaches, it will spell disaster for the region. This beaten path has already proved to be a policy failure long back. Delaying a political solution has made the situation more insecure and unstable, and the conflict has only become more dangerous with time.

Today, Kashmir stands as a potential nuclear flashpoint which could consume the lives of millions of people in an instant.

Engaging in a costly nuclear and conventional arms race with Pakistan and continuing to pursue militaristic approaches in Kashmir will only add to these dangers. You must ask your leaders whether these approaches are truly serving your interests. Allowing a dangerous political conflict like Kashmir to fester is no way to ensure the security of the Indian people, nor can it be a path to a stable future for the region. The Kashmir issue continues to keep all the parties bogged down in a state of perpetual hostility and distrust. In this way, conflict has become the biggest security threat to the region.

Not only is the continuation of the Kashmir issue a direct threat to your economic prosperity and security, we believe that you have a real moral stake in not letting your government continue to pursue what is a failed and unjust policy towards Kashmir. Kashmiris have legitimate rights and aspirations. Attempting to suppress the emotions and aspirations of millions of people by force is no way to address a political conflict. Widespread human rights abuses have taken place and grave injustices have been carried out against our people. Crushing the democratic right to protest and express political dissent, restricting free speech, persecuting entire sections of the population, foisting black laws and continuing to keep hundreds of thousands of military forces deployed for decades on end in Kashmir – surely this represents both a moral and political failure. There has to be an end to all of this.

Please put yourselves in the shoes of our people and try to see the conflict through their eyes. Talk to any common Kashmiri and he or she can share with you the direct pain, injustice and indignity that people continue to suffer as a result of the conflict. Surely, you have a direct moral stake in ensuring that your government takes the higher road on Kashmir towards peace. Kashmir is a human issue and it requires a political solution.

Path of statesmanship

For the sake of our children, we urgently need to resolve this dispute. Instead of a festering quagmire, we should hand over to our youth a chance to shape a peaceful, hopeful and prosperous future — for all parties concerned — for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, India, and Pakistan. We believe that every party must put forward serious efforts to resolve the conflict. For peace, many barriers and obstacles will have to be overcome. Furthermore, any lasting solution must be a just one, and that necessarily means recognising and upholding the Kashmiri people’s aspirations and right to self-determination. In this regard, we are seeking only what is due to the people of Jammu and Kashmir as a matter of legal, moral, and historical right. The solution will have to be acceptable to all parties – India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

For long, we have hoped that India’s leaders would tread precisely this type of an approach — the path of statesmanship. We expected that your Prime Ministers would take bold decisions that would go against conventional thinking to break the status quo and resolve the Kashmir issue.

At various moments, both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave us some reason to believe that an honourable and lasting solution could be achieved.

It was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who went to Lahore and declared from the base of Minar-e-Pakistan: “It is my dream and wish to resolve the Kashmir issue.” It was also Mr. Vajpayee who spoke of holding unconditional talks under the ambit of Insaniyat and vowed that India "shall not traverse solely on the beaten track of the past.” He proclaimed that India’s leadership would act as “bold and innovative designers of a future architecture of peace and prosperity for the entire South Asian region." Similarly, on many occasions, in 2004 and again in 2006 from Amritsar, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talked quite boldly about engaging in an irreversible process of dialogue to reach a political solution on Kashmir.

Period of uncertainty

Unfortunately, these visions could not materialise and the attempts were not sustained. For the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the first decade and a half of this century has only been one of continued uncertainty, human misery, unfulfilled promises, false hopes and failed efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue. Failure has bred cynicism and destroyed hope in Kashmir. The good intentions of your Prime Ministers aside, we regret that the peace initiatives proved to be too fragile and the process too vulnerable. Ultimately, these attempts were reversible. They failed to yield visible results and no progress was achieved towards addressing the underlying realities of the Kashmir issue. As a result, many in Kashmir have concluded that the Government of India is not sincere and has no desire to resolve the Kashmir issue. Today, many people are questioning whether the political path of dialogue and negotiation is the best way to seek their rights and ensure justice.

The Kashmir issue is where it has always been – unresolved and causing great harm, suffering and cost to all. Today, all of us continue to be held hostage to the past. In this regard, we must accept the fact that domestic politics in India has played a disabling role. It has held back leadership and statesmanship in India.

Whenever parties find themselves out of power and in opposition they have tended to take hardline approaches on Kashmir. When ruling governments face domestic opposition, they become unable or unwilling to do what is necessary for peace.

Worse still, sitting governments even take hardline actions themselves that worsen the situation.

Observing all this, Kashmiris have now realised that it is not at all possible to expect any sitting Prime Minister in India (irrespective of the party they come from) to pursue peace on their own. Individual political will and personal determination have not been enough to move the process forward. Therefore, in order to resolve the Kashmir issue, your elected Prime Ministers need the consistent support of the opposition parties and they also need active support from all of you – the people of India.

Therefore, as citizens of India you have a vital role to play for peace in the region. Ultimately, visionary leadership and statesmanship in India will be enabled by your public wisdom and from your active support for peace. Whoever you vote for and whoever ends up forming the next government or sitting in the opposition, you must hold them accountable on the Kashmir issue. You must convince your elected leaders that the time has come to develop a peace process on Kashmir that is immune to domestic politics and power tussles.

The entire region is waiting for India to come forward for peace. There is already a broad political consensus in Jammu and Kashmir and in Pakistan that the Kashmir issue must be amicably resolved. Similarly, you must ask your leaders to develop a political consensus to resolve the issue. Let finding a solution to the Kashmir issue become a goal of all the parties to it.

In this direction, it is our sincere hope that you will raise your voices. You must press the elected leadership to rise above domestic politics and work towards India’s strategic and moral interests. Through your resounding support for safeguarding India’s interests in peace, prosperity and security and through your vocal support for justice, you can make a real impact.

We hope that after the current election, those who are elected to power and those who are in opposition will all act in greater unison to move forward towards resolving the Kashmir issue.

There must be a serious, result-oriented and time-bound process of dialogue between the leadership of India and Pakistan, and of Jammu and Kashmir.

Let this process start sooner rather than later. Over an intensive period of one year, let all of the parties engage actively with one another. Let each party seriously consider whether they can find partners to end this conflict once and for all. We must all try our best and exhaust the possibilities to seek a peaceful solution. Perhaps together we will be able to find some way to take a historic step forward towards a real peace process.

We remain ready and willing to contribute positively and constructively towards this achievement.

Sincerely,

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference
An open letter to the people of India on the Kashmir issue - The Hindu
@Aeronaut @Oscar @mafiya @Chak Bamu @tarrar @Areesh @A.Rafay @Neptune @Rashid Mahmood @jarves @janon @nair @OrionHunter @kaykay @Yzd Khalifa @WebMaster @Munir @Secur @Azlan Haider @Jungibaaz and others

maybe a bit off topic, but I can't resist to say the man in question look a lot like sheriff Grimes from the TV series the walking dead (Portraited by actor Andrew Lincoln)

Sorry if I bring it off topic a bit

 

[janon]

maybe a bit off topic, but I can't resist to say the man in question look a lot like sheriff Grimes from the TV series the walking dead (Portraited by actor Andrew Lincoln)

Sorry if I bring it off topic a bit

Are you talking about Mirwaiz Farooq? If so, you need to get your eyes checked.

 

[OrionHunter]

Furthermore, any lasting solution must be a just one, and that necessarily means recognising and upholding the Kashmiri people’s aspirations and right to self-determination.

A plebiscite is out of the question at this age and stage. Pakistan has not yet withdrawn their forces from the whole of Kashmir before a plebiscite is to be held as per the Security Council Resolutions reproduced below:

I will touch upon the preamble which is the crux of the issue. However before I do that, I would like to mention that Resolution 47 was passed by the United Nations Security Council under chapter VI of UN Charter. Resolutions passed under Chapter VI of UN charter are considered non binding and have no mandatory enforceability, as opposed to the resolutions passed under Chapter VII.

Now for the relevant extracts of the resolution itself:

RESOLUTION 47 (1948) ON THE INDIA-PAKISTAN QUESTION SUBMITTED JOINTLY BY THE REPRESENTATIVES FOR BELGIUM, CANADA, CHINA, COLUMBIA, THE UNITED KINGDOM AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ADOPTED BY THE SECURITY COUNCIL AT ITS 286TH MEETING HELD ON 21 APRIL, 1948. (DOCUMENT NO. S/726, DATED THE 21ST APRIL, 1948).

Noting with satisfaction that both India and Pakistan desire that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.

Recommends to the Governments of India and Pakistan the following measures as those which in the opinion of the Council and appropriate to bring about a cessation of the fighting and to create proper conditions for a free and impartial plebiscite to decide whether the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to accede to India or Pakistan.

A - RESTORATION OF PEACE AND ORDER

The Government of Pakistan should undertake:

To secure the withdrawal from the State of Jammu and Kashmir of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals not normally resident therein who have entered the State for the purposes of fighting, and to prevent any intrusion into the State of such elements and any furnishing of material aid to those fighting in the State.




Firstly, Pakistan has yet to comply with their part of the resolution, ie, to withdraw tribesmen and Pakistani nationals not normally resident therein who have entered the State for the purposes of fighting. Failure to withdraw their troops resulted in the inability of India to put into effect their part of the undertaking.

Secondly, these Resolutions are under Chapter VI and therefore non enforceable. Why did Pakistan agree to this? Why did they not insist on including it under Chapter VII which is enforceable?

Thirdly, there is nothing in this Resolution that mentions the so called ‘third option’ which is independence to the entire J&K that Pakistan is now pushing in what they say is ‘In accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people’.

Having said that, given the substantial and persistent ‘disaffection’ of Kashmiris, combined with the costs of a major military presence in the state, might it not be desirable for India to simply grant the state independence and be rid of both the moral opprobrium as well as the material costs of holding onto the territory?

This ostensibly attractive proposition is fundamentally flawed for four major reasons.

First, even if India and Pakistan both granted independence to their portions of Kashmir, and the two portions merged, what would happen to the religious and sectarian minorities- the Hindus, Buddhists and Shia- within the state? Despite their demands for self-determination, Kashmiri Muslim political activists, let alone their insurgent counterparts, have never agreed to protect the rights of such “nested minorities.”

Second, there’s little reason to believe such an entity would be economically viable. Kashmir is indeed a land of spectacular beauty and a tourist haven. However, tourism alone would not be able to provide for the economic needs of the population. India is doling out almost Rs 50,000 crores in subsidies, grants and government sponsored schemes every year to J&K. Before long it would prove to be yet another ward of the international community. It would not take long for this 'independent' entity to become a basket case.

Third, it is far from clear that if India chose to walk away from the portion of Kashmir that it controls, Pakistan would readily follow suit. Beset with sectarian, class and regional strife, Islamabad would be loath to dispense with a significant part of its country. Indeed Pakistan-controlled Kashmir’s exit could easily trigger a series of demands for secession elsewhere, thereby threatening to unravel an already fragile social fabric in Pakistan.

Fourth and finally, a behemoth neighbor, China, though hardly sympathetic toward India, would nevertheless fear the demonstration effects an independent Kashmir would have for its own secessionist forces in Tibet and Xinjiang. In addition what would be the status of the infrastructure being created by China in the disputed territory of Pak Administered Kashmir if independence is granted?

In sum, the views of the Mirwaiz and his ilk, however well meaning, are misguided. In their rush to alleviate so called ‘human suffering’ they may be advocating policies that would leave the very people they seek to help worse off as well as resulting in secessionist tendencies in countries bordering the region.

 

[Jzaib]

Wow,am almost crying

There is no solution to kashmir as we know it will join pakistan the day it gets independence(which is impossible)just because pakistan is muslim majority country.

Plus the water flowing through kashmir is valuable for us.

If kashmiris are so suffocated here,they are free to cross over to Azad Kashmir but not a mm of land is negotiable.

bold part ... 100 % agree with u

 

[sms]

Kashmir is disputed territory .. .. and Kashmiri peoples are Pro-Pakistan .. bitter truth for u naa..

Over 90% electoral turnout in says different story.
Grapes are sour for you my friend!! Keep dreaming, it's ain't bad for health.

 

[SrNair]

Pure Kashmiris don't want anything to do with Bharat, this is well known fact. Neither they allow hindus to settle in kashmir. They want to merger with land of pure.

Land of what???? Haha hoho

 

[Ajatashatru]

Pure Kashmiris don't want anything to do with Bharat, this is well known fact. Neither they allow hindus to settle in kashmir. They want to merger with land of pure.

Stop babling, you asked why he talk to Indians as second person. Because he don't consider himself Indian and no pure Kashmiri want to associate with India.

You people use the word "Kashmiri" as though you are talking about all of Kashmir. Kashmiri Hindus are pure Kashmiris who consider themselves Indian. Kashmiri Muslim separatists have done the same crimes against Hindus which they claim Indian army is doing against them but they conveniently chose to ignore this.

 

[JOEY TRIBIANI]

Over 90% electoral turnout in says different story.
Grapes are sour for you my friend!! Keep dreaming, it's ain't bad for health.

Over 90% electoral turnout ... according to indian media .. lmao

 

[Irfan Baloch]

I read this "letter" a few days ago and was about to post it here, but I didn't because I realized that it did not contain anything that could not be summed up in one sentence - "Solve the issue!"

Other than going on saying solve it, solve it, he offers nothing by way of solution. As far as we are concerned, there is no issue to be solved - Indian Kashmir will remain India's. The only issue we have is cross border terrorism and jihadi seperatism, but by now we know how to deal with those.

do you consider people of Indian Kashmir as your own people?

 

[janon]

do you consider people of Indian Kashmir as your own people?

Yes I do, why do you ask?