Let the Modi govt focus on present borders first before talking about POK

By Sushil Kutty

Prime Minister Modi’s rightwing Hindu nationalist party, guided by its moral compass, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has limited time to wrest Pakistan Occupied Kashmir from Pakistan, only a billion years! A supercomputer simulation by researchers at Japan’s Tohoku University came to the conclusion that life on earth will last for only a billion more years! Is that time enough for the RSS/BJP to snatch PoK from Pakistan?

Pakistan Occupied Kashmir isn’t just another piece of landmass. Take PoK out of Pakistan’s grip and Pakistan will collapse like a house of cards. But, more than likely, it won’t be India which will get its hands on PoK. The People’s Republic of China already has a foothold and a handhold on PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Don’t forget Aksai Chin. And Karakoram. Both are securely in the control of China. Who hasn’t heard of the “Karakoram Highway”, part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, China’s modern-day Silk Road. The Chinese communists are a determined collective. They latch on to an idea it remains latched onto.

Besides, the Chinese have a knack to get quickly off the block. Picture Usain Bolt for context. Picture also the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The CPEC runs through both Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It is “guarded” and patrolled by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The only people fighting the “people” behind CPEC are the Balochs. The Modi Government cannot hope to get hold of PoK without the Balochs on board. The CPEC is strangling Balochistan’s “jugular”.

Reality is, India’s PoK dreams may not fructify in a billion years and now there’s confirmation that life on Earth will go for a toss in a billion years. Trees will turn into ash as the earth’s atmosphere burns to a point of no return. NASA’s planetary modelling says Earth’s oxygen will be gone in a billion years, making survival impossible. The “aged sun” will become hotter and brighter. Water will evaporate. Surface temperature will rocket up. All plants will die. Oxygen production will halt. There will only be high methane.

And, then, the “Great Oxidation Event”. Forget PoK, so near and yet so far! Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers have been dangling the PoK apple to gullible voters for 11 straight years, through three general elections, right from when Modi bent at the waist and kissed the steps of Parliament. Did he vow to get PoK from the ramparts of the Lal Qila?

Ask the Balochs, they would remember! “Modibhakts” haven’t the stomach to fact check Prime Minister Modi, else there wouldn’t be so many “Modi masterstrokes.” Prime Minister Modi is a good man, even if a much misunderstood one. His problem is that his plate is always full with broken and unfulfilled promises, and the expectations are also too many.

PoK has been a promise. “Pakistan Occupied Kashmir” for Indians and “Azad Kashmir” for the Pakistani; also, together with “India administered Kashmir”, Pakistan’s “jugular.”

Successive Pak Army chiefs have been holding on to de facto and de jure power by feeding the people of Pakistan “Kashmir opium.” Never more than by current incumbent Gen. Asim Munir, who thinks he has a direct line to United States President Donald Trump’s hotline.

Gen. Munir is thrilled Trump offered to mediate and resolve the “1000-year-old Kashmir problem”, which is another reason why a billion years is so less time! President Trump’s record of accomplishments is too thin a spread to instil confidence! Trump’s plate is full and Trump won’t stop piling more on top: The Israel-Hamas rare steak, the Russia-Ukraine potato soup. And, now, the India-Pakistan chilly-chicken with something of the Peking duck for dessert, a side dish?

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh was in Kashmir on May 15 and Singh has given more reason to Gen. Munir and President Trump to ask for third-party intervention in Kashmir. This after the Defence Minister asked “are nukes safe with Pakistan, there should be international intervention?”, meaning world powers should forcibly take Pakistan’s nukes from Pakistan’s insecure hands.

The day before, Prime Minister Narendra was in Punjab’s Adampur air base, where he interacted with soldiers and sent a message to Pakistan. Modi didn’t spend time talking about PoK but it was implicit. Rajnath Singh spoke of Operation Sindoor and Indian Air Force strikes on terror camps in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, but nothing about taking over PoK. Singh “inspected” the remains of Pakistani shells dropped in the border areas.

“How strong is India’s pledge against terrorism today…can be known from the fact that we did not even care about their nuclear blackmail… Today, from the land of Srinagar, I want to raise this question whether nuclear weapons are safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation? I believe that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” Singh said.

Isn’t that a strong case for “internationalizing the Kashmir issue”? Both Singh and Prime Minister Modi are clear that “India will respond” to another terror attack, which makes the case for “international intervention” all the more insistent and important. If ‘Operation Sindoor’ is the “new normal”, the “nuke spill-out” will acquire a dangerous face, which the world powers can only ignore at the world’s peril.

Like it or not, “new military superpower India” will have to listen to reason and involve Trump in solving the Kashmir problem. The Government of India cannot think of PoK as long as rogue nation Pakistan holds nukes in its tenuous hands. Is there a radiation leak from the Kirana Hills nuke storage facility after the missile and drone attacks? How is Pakistan handling the crisis? What does the USA and Trump know?

India carried out 24 missile strikes in 25 minutes on nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The “ceasefire” stopped ‘Operation Sindoor’ and PoK survived in Pakistan’s hands. Question reverts to whether PoK will always remain a poll promise, a failed project? How many more times will the BJP come to power dangling PoK to starry-eyed Hindu voters? The study ‘The future lifespan of Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere’ in ‘Nature Geoscience’ says earth will run out of oxygen in a billion years, is 1 billion sufficient time for the BJP/RSS to snatch PoK out of Pakistan-China’s hands? (IPA Service)

The post Let the Modi govt focus on present borders first before talking about POK appeared first on Daily Excelsior.

News