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The Outsider:Jaswant Singh & Gen.Musharrff on India-Pakistan Relations

thanks for your questions and please find my opinion / response accordingly




should be for all Kashmir region, whatever was defined as Jammu & Kashmir at the time of Partition.


Yes, if both India & Pakistan agree to abide by the UN resolution & there are UN observers or forces there then both will need to do what the UN says otherwise this exercise will fail. neither India or Pakistan will unilaterally move out its forces.


thats a tough question, for the sake of the regional stability and a peaceful resolution, I hope so too. but with yet another entity in this equation, it will only complicate things. I am not too sure if China will be more enthusiastic than either India or Pakistan.

a valid and a sobering point, and I agree. all other extremist parties will use this as an excuse. Muslim extremists forget that its not always a one way traffic there are always repercussions and normally its the innocent Muslims who take the brunt.



Kashmiri Pundists have as much right to Kashmir as any other Kashmir has. the freedom fighters would do themselves a favour by giving support and confidence that the rights of the Pundits will be as respected and honoured as would be for any other Kashmiri.

same as the Indians settled in Kashmir and specially Jammu. the rule must be the same, if one side stays then the other should too, if the recent settlers has to go from one side then so should the other side (that shows how complex the situation is). but it should be their own choice if they want to stay where they are whether Kashmir becomes an Independent country or stays as it is. the only argument will be their right to vote which should be restricted to the Kashmiri natives (again open to interposition).


thats a repeat of question 1 and answer is the same, Jammu is now Hindu majority part as far as I know and they might not be that keen to seek independence from India. Gilgit / baltistan likewise might stay with Pakistan or seek independence as well on the bases of the main question of Kashmir.

what about the people of India who want entire (pakistani Kashmir includes) to be part of India? if both countries agree to honour the rights of Kashmiri people then it will be the duty of the leadership to convince their respective people to respect the rights of kashmiris and accept them as their new friendly neighbours (remember that they are not going to teleport out into Atlantis Kashmir and Kashmrisi will still be there where they are).



valid questions and like you have heard many times from both ex Indian and Pakistani FMs and leaders that both India and Pakistan have approached a solution in principle and Gen Musharraf (COAS of PA) had lead this drive last time so PA is not going to be a hurdle, can you say the same about Indian military?

in short, it will be down to the political leadership on both sides to sell it to the public and be sincere about it. the non state players and trouble makers will fade away when both states will chase them and beat them off and when people in general will accept the solution.

maybe not now but give it few generations we will eventually learn that it might be more beneficial to cooperate and accept each other rather than keep on enriching Western weapon producers.


Sir - My intention was to show what a complex mess this Kashmir issue is. Having stated that, appreciate the efforts you have taken to address the questions and I have tried my best to address certain questions you have raised here.

Indian people should be ready to make a compromise on Kashmir though realistically speaking I am very sceptical but I can safely say that most Indians will be happy with either the status quo or turning the LOC into IB. As for Indian army, it was always under civil control and though their view will be considered, they will go by whatever decision the political leaders make as demonstrated by them since 1947.

As you said it will take few more generations to realise the futility of carrying on with this baggage of Kashmir and meanwhile we need to keep the finger crossed that no major incident which can trigger a catastrophe will happen.
 
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God I love that colonial accent of jaswant Singh.

Odd considering that he gave himself that accent without ever having studied in England. He taught himself English too having spoken not a word of it till he was 9 or thereabouts. If you read Strobe Talbott's account, you would know that even the Americans were both amazed & flummoxed by Jaswant Singh's english. You can also notice that very same detail to language in his Hindi especially in the manner he uses the honorific "ji" where he usually attaches it to the given name & not the surname, as in Atalji Vajpayee or Lalji Advani as opposed to the common vajpayeeji or Advaniji. A rare man, quite extraordinary.
 
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Odd considering that he gave himself that accent without ever having studied in England. He taught himself English too having spoken not a word of it till he was 9 or thereabouts. If you read Strobe Talbott's account, you would know that even the Americans were both amazed & flummoxed by Jaswant Singh's english. You can also notice that very same detail to language in his Hindi especially in the manner he uses the honorific "ji" where he usually attaches it to the given name & not the surname, as in Atalji Vajpayee or Lalji Advani as opposed to the common vajpayeeji or Advaniji. A rare man, quite extraordinary.


notice that when Gen Musharraf used the suffix "sahab" in the end of Sajwant Sign as a way of respect (Jaswant Sahab) then the anchor also picked it up and used it afterwords not sure is to mock Musharraf or it was spontaneous :)
 
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Sir - My intention was to show what a complex mess this Kashmir issue is. Having stated that, appreciate the efforts you have taken to address the questions and I have tried my best to address certain questions you have raised here.

Indian people should be ready to make a compromise on Kashmir though realistically speaking I am very sceptical but I can safely say that most Indians will be happy with either the status quo or turning the LOC into IB. As for Indian army, it was always under civil control and though their view will be considered, they will go by whatever decision the political leaders make as demonstrated by them since 1947.

As you said it will take few more generations to realise the futility of carrying on with this baggage of Kashmir and meanwhile we need to keep the finger crossed that no major incident which can trigger a catastrophe will happen.


I hope that Punjab and Kashmir one day bring us close to friendship and cordial terms and give the bitter past a rest I mentioned Punjab too because of the scars of the partition and tens of thousand lives lost during migration.


I appreciate the OP for adding these videos, jaswant sign is a good statesman Indians must be proud and dont be offended by his book on Jinnah. give it a read first before burning it and acting like our religious thugs do.
 
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As far as Kashmir is concerned , converting LOC to IB with maximum autonomy to Kashmiris and open borders for free travel is the only solution.

The Chatham house poll leads to the same conclusion .Hawks in both countries must realise this .
 
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I hope that Punjab and Kashmir one day bring us close to friendship and cordial terms and give the bitter past a rest I mentioned Punjab too because of the scars of the partition and tens of thousand lives lost during migration.


I appreciate the OP for adding these videos, jaswant sign is a good statesman Indians must be proud and dont be offended by his book on Jinnah. give it a read first before burning it and acting like our religious thugs do.

Sir - Agree with you on the highlighted portion -

As for what you have said about Jaswant Singh and his book on Jinnah - Have not read the book but repeating what I posted in another thread before -

While many Indians hate Jinnah, there are equally some who do not share that opinion. I have more respect for Jinnah than Gandhi or Nehru and being indifferent to partition have not affected my opinion about Jinnah. Gandhi started this communal politics by supporting Khilafat movement while Jinnah opposed it. Not sure why Jinnah started asking for a separate country but he was a straight shooter in going in for Pakistan while Nehru was a confused idealist who caused more harm to India.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/nation...gize-bangladesh-1971-war-6.html#ixzz2Et1Xki1e
 
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