Harbans Singh Raina
German philosopher Georg W F Hegel said “History is unfolding of the cosmic design.” Kashmir is said to be unfinished agenda of the sub-continent but Kashmir problem has its own role to play in the history. If Arnold Joseph Toynbee of “Ifs and Buts” is applied to Kashmir then there are many if and buts and many individuals have played their roles in creating this problem.
If Maharaja had not delayed his decision to align with India, then scenario would have been totally different. He wanted to maintain his independent entity and entered into an agreement with Jinnah, which was called “Stand Still Agreement” with Pakistan. Jinnah sidelined this agreement and lunched a massive Pak – military led kabali invasion in Oct 1947, which led to killing thousands and thousands of innocent people, rape, plunder and loot. Personal Assistant (P.A) to Jinnah wrote that many people advised him not to attack but as Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre wrote in their book (Freedom at Midnight) that Jinnah had become extremely eccentric and callous during that period and did not listen to anyone and proceeded with the attack.
When Pak led forces reached the outskirts of Srinagar then at that time, Maharaja aligned with India and signed “Instrument of Accession”. After this, Indian Army, 1st Patiala regiment under the command of Colonel Khanna was airlifted and brought to Srinagar. It was a quick reaction, hastly planned operation but Indian Army personnel did a tremendous and heroic job and pushed back the marauders. Valley was almost cleared and when Indian forces reached Uri, the ceasefire was announced.
If Nehru had not stopped the advance of Indian forces then there would have been no Pak Occupied Kashmir and no Kashmir problem. Nehru – a Kashmiri Pandit and rationalist, mentioned that he was in the grip of higher power when he took this decision of ceasefire. Jinnah wanted to annex Kashmir either by hook or crook and due to this he even tried to woo Sheikh Abdullah, a popular local Kashmiri leader at that time, but he opted for democratic and liberal India under the tutelage of Nehru. It is also said that ceasefire was ordered under the influence of Sheikh Abdullah because on so called POK.., Muslims conference under Raja Akbar Khan was the dominant force.
Now in short, in quest for getting Kashmir, Pakistan committed grave blunders after blunders which backfired on it. If Pakistan had not started the infiltration in 1965, there would have never been the creation of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Pak army committed horrible crimes against humanity and that too among its own Muslim population, there were rapes, mass looting and entire villages were burnt to the ground. Without learning any lesson from history of its misadventures, Pakistani leaders hatched new terror plan of “Ethnic cleaning” A so called Islamic State putting to wind the great saying of Prophet Mohammed “that the murder of innocent persons is the murder of entire humanity” started, whereby killing of innocent Pandits and Sikhs in their own homes and even the moderate Muslims, who did not support this terrorism, became a routine affair in the valley and other Muslim dominated areas of Jammu province.
Pakistan army agency, ISI was spending millions of rupees towards purchase of arms and ammunitions to sponsor and support terrorism is Jammu and Kashmir. Even at the international level, ISI was funding Kashmiri leader (living in USA) Fai to organise anti India propaganda and seminars in USA and he even pumped in money into USA presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, while Pakistanis back home were starving and were even deprived the basic right of education with an exception of radical madrassas. Credit goes to Manmohan Singh in exposing this vicious money laundering nexus between ISI and Fai during President Bush’s regime in USA.
Pakistan was getting millions and millions of dollars, humanitarian global aid for development to raise the standard of living for its public, but all these funds were diverted to build, sponsor and promote the infrastructure of terrorism, and hate mongering and that too under the tight scrutiny and control of Generals in Pak Army. This trend still continues and as a result of this gross misuse and mismanagement, Pakistan debt soared from 6 billion dollars to currently 30 billion dollars. It has reached a stage that now it is extremely difficult for economically battered Pakistan to come out of this debt trap. Pakistan’s civil and military leadership totally fails to understand that due their policy of supporting terrorism, providing comfort zones for jihadi elements, pursuing agenda of deceit and false propaganda, at the global level, it is perceived as a failed state whose sole purpose is to sponsor and support terrorism in the name of defending Islam.
Pakistan is bound to harvest the crop which it had sown over the last 70 years. I quote from a great book of Lazlo More “whether it is an individual or a nation, it will have to face the consequences of its Karma”. Karma never sleeps. Two propriety feature were incorporated in the “game of life” by its creator: one is that all the inputs of player’s decisions, desires and emotions; including all visual facts are fed wirelessly by thought energy of the participant into Cosmic computer. The second is that players are in the game on the cosmic screen where they are exposed to the dire consequences of thought input, they and others enter into the game”
Pakistan has pushed quite a lot into the game and now is the time to face the consequences. If Lazlo is to be believed, Pakistan is bound to face the decay and disgrace for its horrendous misdeeds of 70 years.
Now article 370, have been waived, I would like to quote from the great book of Walter Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir), he mentions that Kashmiris faced centuries of oppression as a result they are apprehensive and judge every event and individual critically. They are very intelligent and observant and if they are convinced that other person is a well wisher and means well then they will trust him /her completely and he says that give Kashmiri just a good and honorable Government system. This is a simple and honest task which will prove instrumental in making them proud and responsible citizens of the state. I personally observed this trait, when I was appointed as Returning Officer for Pahalgam constituency during 1986 elections. Mr. Mir was national conference candidate and Mr. Hagroo – a renowned lawyer of the J&K high court was MQM candidate. I ensured that presiding officers followed the rules and fair norms and election process was successfully completed.
During the vote counting process, in Dewsar constituency, some drawbacks were noticed and situation became grim, whereby Kazi Nissar – MQM leader launched a protest march and vote counting was stopped. He along with a huge crowd started moving into my counting hall but Mr. Hagroo stood on the main entrance and did not allow the crowd to come in. He stated that election and counting has been fair and that he had no complaint. As the result of this, counting was completed and I announced the result, first in the valley and Mr. Hagroo lost only by 2600 votes.
I close with a great saying of Hazrat Mohammed Sahib ji that “Fitnagar invites the worst wrath of the Gods”. Now I leave for the readers to judge. Moreover, I request my Kashmiri brothers and sisters to draw deep into the age old wisdom of Kashmir and not to opt for a scuttled and sinking ship.
The author is CAO (Retd)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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