New dimensions to India-Pakistan relationship.

Whenever we discuss India-Pakistan relationship, Kashmir is a central issue .

A bit of history:
The Indian independence Act, as passed in the British Parliament, posited the partition of British ruled India into Hindu and Muslim majority regions namely India and Pakistan . The princely states, and this is the important part , were given the freedom to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent . Raja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir chose to remain independent .

Pakistan meanwhile attacked Jammu and Kashmir . Raja Hari Singh approached India for help . India agreed to help on the condition that Jammu and Kashmir accede to India. Raja Hari Singh signed the document of accession and J&K legally became a part of India. The Indian army was in the process of evicting the Pakistani invaders when our leadership commited the historial blunder of involving the United Nations and agreeing on a cease fire . The marks of that blunder are now etched on the ground as the LoC , the positions of the army at the time of the ceasefire .

So much for history , India's claim on J&K are based on the document of accession , whereas Pakistan's claims stem from J&K being a muslim majority state. We can get into this discussion about whose claim is more legitimate, one based on rules and laws and the other based on religious separatism . But that is a separate issue . Since then Pakistan has been spreading terrorism in J&K, using all means possible.

Till a few weeks ago, India's official, international stand was that Pakistan is involved in spreading terrorism in J&K . A counterattack Pakistan has been using for years was accusing India of spreading discontent in Balochistan, which India has summarily denied .

Then came the NAM summit and Dr. Manmohan Singh , by virtue of being the 'elected' Prime Minister, represented India. What came out of the summit was a joint statement by India and Pakistan which stated that India will look into information which Pakistan has on threats in Balochistan . In a moment , India wasted the efforts it has been making for so long, to divert the Pakistani accusation . If this would have come unilaterally from Pakistani , it would have been worth just as any baseless allegation . But now it has a seal of authenticity from India. It is ununderstandable what forced India to agree to this mention in the joint statement .

Serious as the matter was , the issue reached the Parliament of India . The explanation given by the government was as ludicrous as it can be .
"We have nothing to hide on Balochistan". - I know we have nothing to hide on Balochistan , thats the precise reason why there should not have been any mention of Balochistan . Are we going to include things in the joint statement , on which we have nothing to hide ?
" We have not agreed to Indian hand in Balochistan, we will merely look into the issue " - Will Pakistan look into the information, India might provide it on Maoist infested areas ? If not , why will we look into the Balochistan issue ?

The ramifications of this blunder did not take much time to manifest . Just a few days ago , the Pakistani Foreign Minister was showing off the joint statement, as a confession by India of its hand in meddling in internal affairs of Pak . Who do we blame now ? Do we blame Pakistan , or do we blame the India leadership ?

What will we do when the international community asks us " Dear India ! What actions have you taken on the information provided to you by Pakistan about the Balochistan unrest ? " . Then we will be able to do nothing except show a red face .
What if Pakistan tells us that they will stop terrorism in Kashmir only after India stops terrorism in Balochistan .
India has been suffering for more than 60 years on the hands of Pakistan , but we still fail to learn from our mistakes . Today we remember Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru as the one who created the J&K problem for India by agreeing on a cease fire at a totally inappropriate time . Maybe 50 years down the line, we will remember Dr. Manmohan Singh as the architect of the Balochistan headache . A glimpse of that dreamy vision has already been given to us . Remember that India Pakistan joint anti-terror mechanism!

Now maybe , Ill be accused as one of those who does not want cordial relations between the two countries . Lets defeat the designs of the terrorists by not showing any reactions and by talking even more vigorously with Pakistan . That innocent Indians keep getting killed 'during' this peace process , is a totally different issue .