We cannot run away from the fact that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India had promised plebiscite in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. However the promise was made after the papers of accession of the princely state in India had been already signed. Any attempt to question the legal document signed between Raja Hari Singh, the father of Dr. Karan Singh, the ruler of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India, might open the Pandora’s Box because the 500 odd states had signed almost in the same manner. What does that mean?
The rights of land were vested in the king and once those rights were transferred to the sovereign state of India, the land belongs to the people of India. Its status could not be altered by the promise of any individual or functionary without the explicit approval of the Parliament of India. Therefore, the promise of plebiscite did not have the sanction of the Parliament and could not be implemented. All the arguments that situation has changed after so many elections and all the rest are facade.
Even if the promise of plebiscite was fulfilled, the people of Jammu and Kashmir would have had a choice of remaining in India or going to Pakistan. They could not carry the land with them because it belongs to the people of India. I do not know what the so called interlocutors aim to achieve that has not been tried in the last Sixty years. What they are doing is an exercise in futility or at the most a wonderful time pass with humiliation to the Constitution of India and India herself.
Can you retain a hostile population on the strength of your gun to demonstrate the credentials of your secularism? I am afraid not for long. There are only two logical options. One is if you really believe that the state (now province) is an integral part of India, give Indians their right to settle wherever they like within the country. However, if you cannot do that, allow those who want to go to the land of their cherished dream, like so called Mohajirs (they were not mohajirs while in India) did during and after 1947. At any rate, they will not be able to carry the land with them.
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