India wastes no time in diplomatic outreach on J-K

Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 5

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) wasted no time in its outreach to the capital’s diplomatic corps on the proposed legislative changes regarding the status of Jammu & Kashmir, which it emphasised were purely an internal matter and had nothing to do with the dispute with Pakistan on its status.

The MEA embarked on formal and informal briefing of diplomats from several countries after queries poured in at South Block from anxious envoys ever since the government tightened the security cordon in J&K and curtailed civil rights.

Sources said busy with legislative business in Parliament, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar nevertheless adopted a hands-on approach in guiding senior MEA officials on transmitting the government’s line that the proposals related to Article 370 of the Constitution and administrative reorganisation of J&K introduced in Parliament had no political motives. They were aimed at providing good governance, promoting social justice and ensuring economic development in Jammu and Kashmir.

The move will help neutralise Pakistan’s threat to “exercise all possible options” to counter the “illegal steps”. Pakistan had invoked the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions to assert that “no unilateral step by the Government of India can change this disputed status nor will this ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan”.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to address the UN General Assembly on September 28, Pakistan would look at raising the Kashmir issue at the forum in a big way.

Pakistan, however, received little comfort from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which stuck to its formulaic position of expressing concerned about the deteriorating situation in the “Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” and the use of banned cluster munition by the Indian forces to target civilians (since refuted by the Indian Army). 

At Islamabad’s urging, the OIC also asked the international community to press for the “peaceful resolution” of the J&K dispute through the “democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite” in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

In fact, sources pointed out that this OIC statement at a time when J&K’s status was poised for a change was a watered down version of its observations in the final communiqué of the recent OIC summit in Mecca when there was no such move on the horizon. At that time, it had called for the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry to investigate into the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir, and even asked India to allow this proposed commission and international human rights organisations to access “Indian occupied Kashmir”.