Our Government should have learnt by now mere surgical strikes across the LoC would do little . One of our former Defence Ministers has recently informed us India conducted surgical strikes earlier as well . We all know they did not change the Islamabad-sponsored cross-border terrorism against India.
It seems our political leadership is yet to appreciate it has been India’s moral ,legal and constitutional obligation to defend our land( Pak-occupied Kashmir) and the rights and liberties of each and every citizen living therein ever since then Maharaja Hari Singh of the State of Jammu and Kashmir signed with New Delhi the historic ‘Instruments of Accession.’ Regrettably, this piece of land-- two-fifths of Jammu and Kashmir-- still remains under the occupation of Islamabad. The successive dispensations in New Delhi have done little to get PoK back into the territory of India and enable all its inhabitants to enjoy the rights and liberties their counterparts enjoy as Indian citizens in the rest of Jammu and Kashmir .
The inertia of the political command in New Delhi has emboldened Islamabad to proceed with its policy of annexing entire Kashmir by invoking terror against India. The members of Hizbul Mujahideen have been at the forefront of killing, raping and pillaging the minorities , Hindus in particular, in the Valley since the nineties. Their campaign has led to the "ethnic cleansing " of the indigenous minority Pandits.
The current political leadership must take appropriate action without any further delay . It must bear in mind that citizens in a democracy do not employ or elect a leadership to continue any failed policies of its predecessors. It is our Government’s first and foremost duty to ensure the fundamental rights to life, liberty and property of all its citizens.
New Delhi must not tolerate elements who have been killing security forces in the Valley. It must be tough with separatist leaders in particular. They have been working to subvert the values of our civilization and democracy . We all know it is mainly because of their politics of hatred against certain ethnic and religious groups that acts of violence and shutdowns are organized in the Valley today .
I wonder why our successive political leaderships have continued wasting the Nation’s precious time and resources over their so-called efforts to foster regional or global cooperation in our war on terror. The behavioural pattern of the concerned regional and international actors shows this approach is absolutely meaningless . India’s international experience has been bitter. The United Nations passed a resolution of ceasefire ( December 31, 1948) dividing the state . The 1951 UN resolution provided for a referendum under its supervision after Pakistan withdrew its troops from PoK . The world body never pressurized Pakistan to honour its part .
Let’s recall even our arch liberal Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru finally got disillusioned over the conduct of the UN system . In a letter to his sister and Indian Ambassador to the then Soviet Union Vijaylakshmi Pandit in February 1948 Prime Minister Nehru wrote : “I could not imagine that the Security Council could possibly behave in this trivial and partisan manner in which it functioned. These people are supposed to keep the world in order. It is not surprising that the world is going to pieces. The United States and Britain have played a dirty role, Britain probably being the chief actor behind the scenes.’
Let’s not forget , notwithstanding what most of the major powers have occasionally said in the post-9/11 landscape , they have resorted essentially to their self-defence mechanism to combat the evil in their own backyards .