Apposite time to play plebiscite card

THE DEVAATATING RAIN and floods which swept Jammu and Kashmir (pop. 12.5 million) last month, taking a toll of 280 lives, 5,000 injured and destroying property valued at Rs.6,000 crore, leaving an estimated  2 million households destitute and at the mercy of a thoroughly inept, callous and corrupt state government,  has brought this troubled north Indian state squarely back into the national limelight. It’s pertinent to note that in addition to being periodically  subject to nature’s fury, the people of J&K have also had to bear the burden of cross-border terrorism, political instability, law and order breakdown and government corruption, for over half a century. The continuous troubles and travails of the long-suffering people of this state are rooted in its history, because no government of neighbouring Pakistan has accepted the legitimacy of the J&K state government and in particular, the accession of the erstwhile kingdom of Kashmir to India in 1948. Indeed, within months of India and Pakistan being declared separate sovereign countries in 1947, the two new nation states were at war with each other over the status of Muslim- majority Kashmir whose Hindu ruler signed a treaty acceding the kingdom to India. At that time following a UN-brokered ceasefire and the partition of Kashmir into Indian Kashmir — later reconstituted into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir — and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), India’s prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru pledged a plebiscite in Kashmir once peace and normalcy was restored. But two full-fledged wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and continuous  Pakistan supported  cross-border terrorism, have never permitted peace and normalcy to be restored in  the region, and the promised plebiscite has not been held. On the contrary, the special status of Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution of India has been steadily diluted and now there’s a virtual political consensus that Kashmir is “an integral part of India”. Moreover, the misfortune of the people of J&K trapped in the crossfire between India and Pakistan, has been compounded by the state’s corrupt and self-serving politicians and establishment dominated by the Abdullah family who have pandered to Islamist elements while neglecting socio-economic development. On the other hand, the commitment and solidarity of the Indian Union to the people of J&K has been amply demonstrated by the huge aid in the form of money and materials which has poured in for the flood-hit people of the state from across India, and the sustained effort of the Indian Army to rescue marooned people. With Pakistan insisting that settlement of the status of Kashmir is the “core issue” for Indo-Pak peaceful co-existence, this is a good time for India to agree to the long-promised plebiscite in undivided Kashmir. If despite this ample demonstration of amity, support and solidarity, the people of this former kingdom don’t appreciate the advantages of being an integral part of the Indian Union, they are not worth the trouble of keeping. Ill-informed media damaging education THE CAUSE OF IMPROVING AND upgrading Indian education is being hurt…