The Hindu Business Line : Jammu & Kashmir issue

Even as we analyse the speech of the Pakistani President, a few other signals also need to be picked up. An American think-tank has, in a recent article in the Financial Times, dangled the carrot of a UN Security Council seat as an "incentive that a united international community could offer India in return for a real willingness to seek a Kashmir settlement". Even if Jawaharlal Nehru were alive today, he would have frowned on such an offer!

In addition, there has been a barrage of anti-India articles in the western media. Neither has there been a flurry of articles by our defence analysts and academics defending India's views in the western press.

I also profess shock at some TV programmes. In one, an Indian intellectual commented that India's actions in Goa and Hyderabad were unfair. The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union in terms of the devolution of powers settled by Britain is final and our arguments should flow from this. Our foreign office should be provided transcripts of the famous 13-hour speech of the late Krishna Menon in the UN effectively putting forth our case. This should also serve as background material for MPs scheduled to visit important capitals.

S. Subramanyan

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