Independence days in Pakistan & India still trigger unresolved questions
Hem Raj Jain <hemraj_jain@yahoo.com>
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Dear Editor
Sub:- Independence days in Pakistan & India still trigger sad memories & ardent desire for unified India
-- On the eve of Independence days of Pakistan and India (August 14 and 15) Sudheendra Kulakarni ( an aide to India's former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) has written an article "Pakistan Without Partition: Let's Revive The Buried Idea Of Indo-Pak Confederation" in 'The Huffington Post' (http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sudheendra-kulkarni/pakistan-without-partitio_b_7986022.html?utm_source=TOInewHP_TILwidget&utm_medium=ABtest&utm_campaign=TOInewHP)
No doubt one day India and Pakistan will have to unite which will ultimately pave the way for 'FSDSAARC (Federation of Secular Democratic SAARC Countries) and this will of-course come through the solution of Kashmir problem, but not the way Kulkarni has suggested.
First we have to understand why was India partitioned ?
Communal forces can be suppressed only by martial element of the country. India (unlike in 1857) did not raise guns against Britishers for independence rather martial element of India was happily drawing salaries from Britishers and was not involved in the demand for independence. With the result the so-called independence movement became half-hearted (even not genuine because without getting independence from military of challenged regime there can be no independence, worth the name). Hence communal forces of Hindus and Muslims had field-day (which was beyond the capacity of civilian leaders Gandhi & Jinnah to control and suppress) and these communal forces engineered partition in which more than Jinnah etc of Muslim League the Congress leaders Gandhi, Nehru, Patel etc (leaders of majority Hindu community responsible for keeping India united) are mainly to be blamed.
Britishers also played an overenthusiastic role in breaking India for the simple reason that Hindu Congress deeply offended Britishers by quit India movement in 1942 when UK was in thick of World War II against Germany (which was even criticized by then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who asked these Congress leaders whether they wanted Hitler to win)
Therefore the solution for unification of India & Pakistan which Kulkarni has suggested will not neutralize the communal forces of Hindus and Muslims in these countries. Rather now again if India Pakistan are to be united then it will come only through martial solution. This is possible by retrieving POK even military if necessary (the process for which can be initiated as mentioned at http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/letterdetails.php?letterid=694). This will constrain world community (especially P 5+1) to force nuclear India and Pakistan to merge in Unified India & Pakistan.
The unification of India and Pakistan is necessary for the progress of these countries as Kulkarni rightly says that - "[Now, nearly 70 years later, is an India-Pakistan Confederation (with the inclusion of Bangladesh) still possible? Is it necessary? The necessity is beyond doubt. Together, our three countries account for a population of over 1.6 billion, the largest segment of global population with a common civilizational ancestry and socio-religious-racial-cultural complexion. The problems of poverty, socio-economic backwardness, protection of the environment, guarantee of equal rights and security to all sections of the plural societies in the three countries, safeguarding and strengthening of inter-religious harmony, development of robust democracy and institutions of good governance, peace within and along the borders - these too are common. It is delusional to think that any of the three countries can fully surmount these challenges on its own]".
But if people (including Kulkarni) think that this unification of India & Pakistan can come without said martial solution (by retrieve of POK by India) then they are living in make believe world.
Regards
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