INDIA’S FUTURE HINGES ON RESOLUTION OF KASHMIR ISSUE

They say that foresightedness is one of the greatest virtues people, leaders and communities can have. And by the same token, shortsightedness is the greatest misfortune people or societies can have. Of course, no one has the crystal ball that can accurately foretell what’s stored for you, but an educated assessment of the future is always beneficial.

India aspires to play a greater role for itself in the world affairs. It is demanding an entry into the UN as a permanent member, it also wants to become a member of the nuclear club. It is trying hard to portray itself as a country that hold great prospects for investors and a country with a secular mindset and a tolerant Hindu society. With these messages, India is trying to woo support from the rest of the world for a greater role in the world. Aiming for this objective is fine, but then it needs certain pre-requisites to facilitate the progress towards this goal. The first among those is to ensure that India remains a secular and a progressive Hindu State.

If we look at a couple of thousand yeas of history prior to 1947, the united India has been ruled by minorities. It is only 69 years ago that Hindus got to rule some part of subcontinent, called India. Unfortunately, India risks losing it, and only, due to its short sighted policies and nothing else.

For some reason, Indians believe that offering economic opportunities will enable them to hoodwink the world into believing that India is a peace loving and a just society. This may be true in the short run, but cannot take India far. There are several reasons for that. Among those that, in my opinion, those that strike out are as follows:

  1. India runs the risk of a nuclear war with Pakistan. Its rhetoric and covert activities of RAW inside Pakistan are not in the interest of India. India cannot get away with breaking Pakistan. It will have to face a destructive nuclear war, before that happens
  2. If for argument sake, it does succeed in breaking up Pakistan, it will have unstable nuclear powered neighbors – not a good situation to be  in the longer run
  3. Out of about 1.2 billion population, about 350 million are Muslims. The growth rate among the Muslims is around 3%. By the turn of this century, the number of Muslims living in India would close to a billion people alone. So, we are really talking about another nuclear power Muslim country.
  4. There are about a dozen insurgencies brewing in India. Among them is Kashmir. It’s a question of time that India will have to relinquish Kashmir and let go of other insurgent ethnic groups.

With this backdrop, India needs to introspect and re direct its strategic thinking. It must be viewed as a country that must adhere to the international norms and respect international law, else it will disintegrate and lose international support sooner than later. So what options India has to preserve the Hindu State?

1. Hold referendum in occupied Kashmir to come clean on its long standing commitment to hold plebiscite that it agreed to hold.

2. Over time, integrate Muslims into the mainstream to prevent a violent reaction from Muslims.

3. Make peace with Pakistan to defuse the potential of an undesirable and destructive nuclear war.

India has some choices to make. I hope for Hindu Indians, that Indian leadership makes the right choices.