Vish, Ashfaque and Flint,
I am not surprised by your comments - you are after all frequenters of a defense forum (as am I) and therefore liable to be more jingoistic than most, and ardently opposed to pragmatism or compromise of any sort.
Honestly AM, I do not think you are at any higher moral ground; your posts are as jingoistic as ours.
As far as compromises go, the Article 370 is the biggest compromise we could have ever offered. There was never any question that the region deserves Article 370 (it does); however, I doubt if the situation will remain so henceforth.
The events of the last few days will not anytime soon change Indian policy towards Kashmir.
They have; expect a more hard-line approach henceforth, regardless of who comes to power in the center.
That is not what my point was, but they are important in that after all these years of investment by India in Kashmir, hoping to use development as a way to win Kashmiris over, it is obvious that the overwhelming sentiment remains pro-Pakistan.
What development AM? After your insurgency, things went down the gutter. No matter how much development takes place, somebody's neighbor is dying; people are being picked up; etc. We have to maintain a 600k+ presence to check your insurgency; this is followed by excellent "occupation forces" PR. The result is that the people in the region are anti-establishment; this is what the primary goal of any insurgency/guerilla conflict is. The pro-Pakistani sentiment is a result of anti-India sentiment, which is not our making or genuine. Its a result of years of conflict, i.e. your doing.
Its not a matter of seeing 'pro-Pakistani' Kashmiris, the events of late pretty much show us that most of the valley is pro-Pakistan, or pro independence - either is fine by me, though I prefer the former.
You really think their sentiments matter to one billion Indians who are seeing their opposition to the land transfer as wrong? If they are pro-Pakistani/Independence, they are traitors; that is how a majority of the Indians see them.
That the facade has fallen is crucial, because India and Indians had built up this charade that Kashmri could be won over, and that the Kashmiris would accept and integrate with India, and that argument has been destroyed for now.
I agree; but we learnt a different lesson: Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Moving on, whether the GoI scraps Kashmir's special status or not remains to be seen.
A whole lot of Indians want the GoI to.
It is equally likely that CBM's between AK and IK might see the light of day, with trade between Muzafarabad and Srinagar blossoming.
Nope; not at all. The peace is out of the window.
The latter will be good for everyone involved, the former we shall see, but IMO it will portend more instability in IK, and a further alienation and radicalization of the Kashmiris.
I disagree... with Article 370 gone, the "fruits of Indian economy" begin to percolate in the region... non-Kashmiris begin to move in and the people therein begin to see that we are not three-eyed evil monsters that they hallucinate us to be...
The only thing holding Article 370 was the Muslim sentiment in India. That is now almost non-existent. The Indian Muslims don't give much of a damn about Article 370 anymore.