New Delhi, March 01, 2022 (PPI-OT):Quartz India, a privately held English-language newspaper, has exposes the ‘integral mantra’ woven by Indian ruling class around Jammu and Kashmir over years by admitting that the constitution of UN Commission for India and Pakistan by the United Nations to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir hurt India’s position and validated Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir dispute.
The newspaper in an article on “Why India isn’t voting against Russia at the UN” wrote that the UN Commission was created after then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru approached the United Nations in 1948 on the matter.
The article written by Manavi Kapur further said that India has a chequered past at the United Nations Security Council, especially on the matter of Jammu and Kashmir. “In 1948, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had approached the UN to recognise and respect India’s territorial integrity in Kashmir.”
“At the time, however, the UN instituted the UN Commission for India and Pakistan and resolved to hold a plebiscite in the region. This hurt India’s position and validated Pakistan’s, according too many experts”, the Quartz India added. Commenting on India’s position vis-à-vis Russia-Ukraine conflict, the newspaper wrote: “India’s stance has much to do with its own interests at the UNSC.”
India, once again, abstained from voting on the Russia-Ukraine issue at the United Nations on February 28. China and UAE were the other two nations among the 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to abstain from voting on the subject of holding an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Indian envoy to the UN TS Tirumurti explained the country’s decision as a return to the path of diplomacy, welcoming the Russia-Ukraine dialogue at the Belarusian border. “Our position (on Russia and Ukraine) is in our interest,” Asoke Mukerji, a former Indian ambassador and permanent representative to the UN in New York, told the media. “We need to look at history and see what had happened with us back in 1948 when we took the issue of territorial integrity and sovereignty to the UNSC.”
Vijay Nambiar, India’s former permanent representative to the UN in New York said, “The only P5 (permanent five) country that helped us on some of our most important concerns has been Russia.” “Russia has been our steady supporter in our national security concerns, particularly with regard to Jammu and Kashmir.”
Political experts said that New Delhi remembering USSR’s stance on Jammu and Kashmir in the UN is an open admission to the fact that Kashmir is not an integral part of India; instead it is an internationally-recognized disputed territory whose fate is to be determined by the UN-sanctioned plebiscite. They added that Russia’s closeness with China, and, increasingly with Pakistan in recent years has worried India. That is why New Delhi had to abstain from voting in the UNSC against Russia.
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