J&K Diary: Far from Reality

Intro: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto’s comment of taking back every inch of Kashmir is being considered ‘far from reality’ by India.

“I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belonged to Pakistan,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) while addressing his party workers in Multan of Punjab. He is the only son of Asif Ali Zardari (former president of Pakistan from 2008-2013) and Benazir Bhutto who severed two terms (1988-1990 and 1993 to 1996) as Prime Minister of Pakistan. The party which Bilawal Bhutto chairs was founded by his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who himself served as Prime Minister (1973-1977) and President (1971-1973) of Pakistan. Bilawal’s Grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the main architect of 1965 war between India and Pakistan and was proponent of covert infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

So, we can say that Bilawal belongs to the third generation of mindset that had caused many border skirmishes and military stand-offs apart from four wars between India and Pakistan. This is the inhuman attitude of Pakistan polity which across the border has caused Lakhs of people to lose their lives. Due to this illegal and therefore unethical approach of Pakistan, this stand had misguided thousands of young people to become terrorists who literally converted the heaven of earth (Valley) into the most intolerant and unsafe land.
Reacting to Bilawal’s statement on Kashmir, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav tweeted “Grandpa Bhutto talked about 1000 year war. Mummy talked about ‘Azadi’ and the kid talks about taking back Kashmir. The Generation has changed, but not the mindset.”

As soon as he voiced his love for Kashmir, the 26- year- old became the butt of jokes on Twitter. “I will take back Kashmir, it belongs to Pakistan-Bilawal Bhutto…if they can’t kill us with weapons, they’ll sure kill us with laughter”, read a tweet. Apart from being laughable, it’s an issue of concern because future of India’s relations with Pakistan depends on the politicos of next generation of Pakistan, and if Bilawal is a part of it, the future does not seem that promising. Notable is that Bilawal is also planning to contest next general election. It may be Bilawal’s effort to revive PPP’s support base after it has lost grounds in the last elections.
By now it’s a settled fact that in-order to get noticed, it has become necessary for Pakistan to raise the issue of Kashmir (which is none of their business). Or, it may be an effort to bring PPP into limelight when all the headlines are only talking about Tahir-ul-Qadri, Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif. Whatever it is, the statement surely aims to misguide the people of Pakistan.
Infact, Bilawal is behaving immature at a time when anti setup protests are emerging from all the provinces it has. At this time, a statement reflecting concern was needed when where his country is rattled by heavy protests, Kashmir is facing the worst flood of the century. As far as “like other provinces, it (Kashmir Valley) belongs to Pakistan” is concerned, the Pakistan Supreme Court has even refused to accept Gilgit-Baltistan (A part of Jammu-Kashmir which is illegally occupied by Pakistan) as a part of Pakistan, forget about Kashmir as its province. Leaving history aside and strictly going by the laws which created Pakistan, whole of J&K including Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India and garbling with it may raise questions to its own existence. So called issue of Kashmir probably is the lifesaving tactic of Pakistani set up. In the effort of same kind, this self promoting statement by Bilawal may have helped him reach to fundamentalists who, to infiltrate in Kashmir Valley, are not ashamed of taking advantage of natural calamity. But trends in social media of Pakistan suggest that his statement was surely discouraging for the new generation.
Responding to a statement by Bilawal, Syed Akbaruddin, official Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, said, “The integrity and unity of India is non-negotiable and that counts for anyone.”He said the comment was “far from reality which takes us back into the past century”.
Arvind ( The writer is a researcher at J&K Study Centre, New Delhi)