Pak must stop war talk, and keep off Kashmir

India has done well to decry Pakistan’s unwarranted belligerence over Kashmir, with the government’s spokesman exhorting it on Thursday to become a “normal” country, stop exporting terrorism, and stop its top leaders from making incendiary statements against India, that include talk of “jihad” and the use of violence. What interest can Pakistan possibly have in Kashmir? No part of the domains of the last maharaja belonged to Pakistan after its creation. It seized what is PoK now from Maharaja Hari Singh in violation of the Standstill Agreement and sent its forces to the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan).

When the maharaja, in desperation, acceded to India, Indian forces were able to oust the invaders from the Kashmir Valley entirely, and parts of Jammu and Ladakh. That still leaves Pakistan illegally occupying about 40 per cent of the erstwhile maharaja’s realm, a part of which it made over to China in an off-book transfer. There is little doubt that Kashmir is a wholly internal matter of India’s, and it is entirely for Indians to endorse or criticise the Narendra Modi government’s recent action of abrogating parts of Article 370 of the Constitution and related provisions.

At the level of domestic politics, it is an understatement that the government has thoroughly alienated the Valley’s population, a perception it is seeking to change by announcing 50,000 jobs in three months, besides lifting some restrictions. Will this be enough to heal wounds? That’s anyone’s guess. Educated unemployment is a major issue in Kashmir, but J&K as a whole, and the Valley in particular, have higher development levels than most of India. Thus, the development argument for the constitutional annexation of Kashmir is, at best, artificial and self-serving.

As for the security aspect, J&K’s geographical location on Pakistan’s periphery will not change even if it's made a part of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, leave alone a Union territory, in effect bypassing Kashmir’s mainstream politicians. Even so, reports of human rights violations cannot be brushed aside when there is an information and communications blackout. So far, we only have the government’s reassertion that not a single live bullet has been fired in Kashmir and not a single death at the hands of the security forces since the lockdown began.

None of this can be grounds for Pakistan PM Imran Khan to raise the spectre of a nuclear exchange or for one of his ministers, Sheikh Rashid, to predict a war in the coming October-November, as Mr Khan readies to leaves for the UN General Assembly session next month. There can't be many takers for this. Scare-mongering as currency is now pretty much dead.

Since the Pakistan military runs the politics of that country and running terrorists as policy is still Islamabad’s valued enterprise, an alert by India at the right level is necessary. But no dramatics all over television, please.