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Given its vastly improved relations with the United States and Pakistan, India has no reason to press the panic button. Yet it should be quickly flagging its concerns with the foreign policy team of Senator Barack Obama, should he be declared the Forty-fourth President of the United States on Tuesday night.
In an interview broadcast on MSNBC, Obama suggested that his administration would encourage India to solve the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan, so that Islamabad can better cooperate with the United States on Afghanistan. Obama’s definitive thesis comes in three parts.
“The most important thing we’re going to have to do with respect to Afghanistan is actually deal with Pakistan. And we’ve got to work with the newly elected government there (Pakistan) in a coherent way that says, terrorism is now a threat to you. Extremism is a threat to you. We should — try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they (Pakistan) can stay focused not on India, but on the situation with those militants”. India entirely agrees with the first two elements but should strongly object to the third.
Put simply, the Obama thesis says: the sources of Afghan instability are in Pakistan; those in turn are linked to Islamabad’s conflict with New Delhi, at the heart of which is Jammu and Kashmir.
For months now, New Delhi has been assessing Obama’s seeming hard-line towards Pakistan, including a threat to bomb terrorist bases there if Islamabad failed to act against the al-Qaida and the Taliban. India, however, has paid less attention to the carrot
Obama was offering Pakistan—American activism on Kashmir in return for credible cooperation in Afghanistan.
Obama’s remarks on Kashmir are by no means off the cuff. They have been remarkably consistent since he launched his presidential campaign. In the first comprehensive articulation of his world view in the journal Foreign Affairs during the summer of 2007, Obama argued, “If Pakistan can look towards the east (India) with confidence, it will be less likely to believe its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the Taliban.”
If Obama’s Kashmir thesis becomes the policy, many negative consequences might ensue. For one, an American diplomatic intervention in Kashmir will make it impossible for India to pursue the current serious back channel negotiations with Pakistan on Kashmir, the first since 1962-63.
India and Pakistan have made progress in recent years, because their negotiations have taken place in a bilateral context. Third party involvement will rapidly shrink the domestic political space for India on Kashmir negotiations.
For another, the prospect that the U S might offer incentives on Kashmir is bound to encourage the Pakistan Army to harden its stance against the current peace process with India.
Finally, the sense that an Obama Administration will put Jammu & Kashmir on the front burner would give a fresh boost to militancy in Kashmir and complicate the current sensitive electoral process there. Kashmiri separatist lobbies in Washington have already embraced Obama’s remarks.
To be sure, Indo-U S relations are much stronger today to suggest a return to the discordant early 1990s, when Kashmir topped the bilateral agenda. Yet, New Delhi cannot ignore that Pakistan is likely to be at the very top of a President Obama’s national security agenda and his perception of a linkage between Kashmir and Afghanistan.
India’s chattering classes may be carried away by Obama’s talk of ‘change’ in Washington. On Kashmir at least, India badly needs ‘continuity’ with President George W Bush’s deliberate hands-off approach.
Although his historic civil nuclear initiative got all the attention, President Bush’s Kashmir policy has contributed even more significantly to the transformation of Indo-U S relations.
Despite relentless pressures from Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Bush refused to inject the U S into the Indo-Pak conflict. By ending the traditional American meddling in Kashmir, Bush created the conditions for purposeful bilateral negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad. India would not want Obama to disrupt this positive dynamic in the subcontinent.
India does not disagree with Obama that a Pakistan secure within its own borders is good for the whole region. That indeed is the basis on which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee explored solutions to the Kashmir dispute on a bilateral basis.
India’s problem with the Obama thesis is in the simplistic trade-off it sets up between Kashmir and Afghanistan. More than seven years after 9/11, Washington has begun to understand that the source of the problem in both Kashmir and Afghanistan is the Pak Army and its instrumentalisation of extremism to achieve political objectives.
Ending the Army’s right to define Isalamabad’s national security goals would make it a lot easier to resolve Pakistan’s disputes with both India and Afghanistan. That in turn would demand Indo-U S cooperation in accelerating Pakistan’s democratic transition by establishing firm civilian control over the military.
(C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and a Contributing Editor of The Indian Express.)
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Hopefully if Obama comes in power he should work for the solution of kashmir in realistic way as it is because of this pending occupation issue which is not letting peace come in asia this can be a welcome step for the peace in region as tension between india and pakistan gonna flare away
India's statement on Kashmir should be as simple as this - We gave you a large part of our country - our land - so you could make your own country. Then you forcibly took even more land from us as "Pak occupied kashmir or Azad kashmir" as you call it, now India is not willing to give in even one more inch of it's territory to you. The only solution that we may consider is convert the line of control to international border. That is it. End of discussion. Alternative - a full blown war with nothing held back. That will cure this problem once and for all and also cure the world's population problem.
Looking at it positively, Obama might help India and Pak to permanently resolve Kashmir problem by converting LOC into international border which we have not been able to do during the past 60 years. Obama knows it only too well that India can be an effective counter-weight against China and he would like to do anything to gain India's friendship like Bush administration has done by signing Indo-US nuclear treaty against all odds. Obama would not like to jeopardise relations with India in view of our strategic importance vis-a-vis Pakistan. USA needs Pakistan only to fight war on terrorism during the next few years whereas they need India's cooperation for all times to come.
I have heard that an idol of Hanumanji is being sent to USA.So have faith. God willing everything will turn out to be in our favour.
Whoever wins on Nov.4th, be clear that India needs to fend for itself. They will not get any inch from the US and certainly not from Pak. Given this situation, India needs to mobilize all it's military and non-military forces, eg, MNS, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, VHP, Trinamool Cong, Mayawati, etc into Kashmir. Let them be the cannon fodder incase there is an escalation of violence.On a more serious note, let Biharis and Marathis stop fighting because India will need to deal with a much tougher situation
Barack Hussain Obama is Rome Mary Sonia of USA as he is not a US Citizen. His birth certificate from Kenya shows that he is a citizen of Kenya and Indonesia. Hawaiian birth certificate is forged. Barack Obama was born in Kenya in 1961 to an American woman, Stanley Ann Dunham, and a Kenyan man, Barack Hussein Obama Senior, as shown by a birth certificate from Mombasa Maternity Hospital. According to the law at that time, a parent could pass US citizenship on to a child born abroad if the parent was at least 19 years old. Obama's mother was only 18. No hospital birth certificate has been produced to show Obama was born in Hawaii, only a certificate of birth registry after the fact, which forensics experts have denounced as a forgery. When Obama was six years old his mother remarried and moved with her husband to his country, Indonesia. Records indicate Obama was naturalized as an Indonesian citizen. Indonesia does not allow dual nationality, so the Hawaii, Obama citizenship is invalid
Barrack Obama, if he becomes US President, should use his clout and influence to make LOC the international border. In case, the Hurriyat and the separatists do not like this, he should make them go and live in POK or in Pakistan.
the approach by Bush was more practical for both US and India.Obamas thesis shows his lack of deep understanding of ground realities
WAIT TILL HE BECOME PRESIDENT.OBAMA IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL INFORMED PERSON, WHEN IT COME TO WORLD POLITICS.HE IS NOT TRYING TO CURRY ANY FAVOURS WITH PAKISTAN, HE KNOWS WITHOUT, "INDIA HELP", I REPEAT WITHOUT INDIA HELP, PAKISTAN IS DOOMED.WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT KASHMIR, IT IS NOT INDIA HE IS PRESSING, IT IS PAKISTAN, HE IS WARNING, SETTLE YOUR REGIONAL DIFFERENCES WITH INDIA, INCLUDING KASHHMIR. TO KNOW OBAMA READ HIS BOOKS AND HIS SPEECHES IN FULL, NOT OUT OF CONTEXT.HE KNOWS THE SURVIVAL OF THIS WORLD DEPEND ON STRONG DEMOCRACIES, NOT ON,"DEMAGOGUES,"WHICH HE IS NOT, FOLLOW HIS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.
It is highly likely that Obama will get elected U.S. President. But hope Obama dont bring his 'Jihadi' agenda to India.
India and pakistan know that kashmir issue is not just about muslim majority population. Western media, Indian media and even Indian public don't know what is truly behind kashmir issue.1. 6 rivers orignate from Indian kashmir and flow into pakistan. These rivers are the lifeline of pakistan.2.Terrorists group Lashkhar-e-toiba leader himself said that pakistan will turn into a desert, if it gives up on kashmir.3. So, India knows it and recently even built a dam across one of the rivers. Pakistan as usual opposed it and even demanded compensation from india. India as usual gave its middle finger to pakistan.4. Even if obama forces india for a compromise, the status quo will remain. That means, Current LOC has to be made an International Border. Even if India accepts it, pakistan would never accept it.5. Ordinary kashmiris have no idea about their kashmir issue. It is all about water. India and pakistan can never give its part of kashmir. So, no independence.
I just wonder if he can even survive an assasination attempts from white supremacy racisits in the US, forget about becoming president...
Obama is going to run into a wall as soon as he starts hobnobbing with his idealistic Kashmir solutions, and throw Indo-US relations back to the days of the cold war. India should tell Obama where he gets off, if he even so much as brings up the topic.
Nice to see non-Kashmiri guys making comments about Kashmir issue. Please visit that place and see if we need to resolve that issue or write these meaningless lines below. Kashmir issue needs to be solved, and it is a fact of history, whether you like it or not.Make borders irrelevant and give democracy and freedom of speech to Kashmiris, where Chief Ministers are elected from New Delhi??
Obama's Kashmir Solution:Let Obama divert his energy, resources and time to first solve the Palestinian problem, then all the other problems will be solved automatically. US is playing double game in ME affairs in dealing with Israeli and Palestinians.
Why the hell there has to be any intervention in India's own affairs/policies?Certainly ther had been blunders comitted by Nehru and IndraGandhi.He took the matter to UNO and made Kashmir into a conflict zone and she could have forced Pakistan to surrender its stuborn attitude/stand on Kashmir when Pakistani forces had surrendered.The facts say only one thing that Kashmir is and was integral part of India.The then Raja had ceded to India freewillinglylike many others did.Kashmir must stay with India at every cost and India has to be very open,clear and aggressive to press Pakistan to accept the historical facts.Can could and India should resolve this socalled dispute through direct approach with Pak and absoölute no interference,especially from USA or any other western country.They would like to keep the conflict burning for their own benefits.What have they done to settle the Palestianian dispute?Where they have ever acted sincerely to resolve existing conflictts?Obama is Naive
Barack has much bigger issues to resolve before he even conemplates on changing course on Foreign policy matters..we need to see whom he chooses to cover the South Asian desk..remember Robin Raphael it took India a whole term of First Clinton Presidency to change course..Jaswant was right on the case ..we must get our man on the base as the game starts running..but Maya has a different agenda... Kashmir has to be brought back on the peace agenda minus all the vested interests..and this will be done believe me! ..only that when it happens everyone will be caught flatfooted..just like what has happened with financial crisis ..regards and god blessviren naik
I don't think Obama's"Thesis" is going to solve the Kashmir problem!!Pakistan is biased against India since 1947
The Kashmir issue has been solved. Now the solution has to be fully implemented. Pakistan must vacate all parts of J
Obama's Kashmir thesis comes from his relative inexperience in global politics. The Kashmir issue has to be solved by India
I REQUEST KASHAMIRI BROTHERS DONT DEPEND ON PAKISTAN SEE TODAY PAKISTAN IS FULLY CURRUPTED AND JAHAIL PEOPLE BE WITH INDIA AND JOIN PROGRESS AND BE HAPPY
Barrack Obama will lose in the presidential elections. Us will never elect a non-white as their president. So lets stop wasting time in discussing what his policies would be.
I think the people who are thinking about borders are fools, countries and religions created by human beings, but created this earth for the whole man kind but not for one religion and not for one culture. Why do we need to afraid if kashmir is ours, lets go for plubisite with United Nations, One who oppose plubisite they don't have rights to speak about Freedom and Patriotism
who the shyte is Obama to talk about Kashmir issue, Kashmir is India's , will Obama dare to make such remarks on Russia or Chinese lands? Why our leaders are always spineless? Why dont we get a real leader who dont please the politicians rather rule them? Why is India going so bad with bomb blasts everywhere...dont we know who the people behind this are? Are our intelligence just stupid? if so why doont we develop them and stop such things to happen what are we waiting for? for Obama?........we much be busy growing now.
If India has a good strong leadership, we have to ignore what the world says. It is our issue and our country is capable of handling any situation. First resolve terrorism at home. Hold the family of the terrorists accountable. Their properties need to be sealed how can the government be so soft with the innocent killings. Shame on PM. Slam and strap the Italian poodle as she has no Indian blood and show your Kingship if you think you are capable. Please do use vendetta where your country's integrity is concerned.