Devesh Khandelwal.
During Operation Sindoor, we saw how the demand to connect Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) with India started coming up. Then this issue was also widely raised in Parliament. In general, the Bharatiya Janata Party has always been vocal on this subject. From Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have also been continuously speaking about POJK in India. But the surprising thing is that the Congress is raising the issue of POJK for the first time.
Actually, these things have been actively associated with Devesh Khandelwal, who have been actively associated with writing and research work for the last 15 years. He told that for a long time, the Congress never took POJK seriously. For decades, it did not even join the priorities of Congress. During Operation Sindoor, the Congress first, even though it started publicly discussed about POJK only at the political level. But in this process, the leaders of the Congress forgot to clarify some facts or intentionally remained unknown.
United Nations stance on Pakistani infiltration
In fact, the current state of POJK is the result of the preceding policies of the Congress and the silent silence for long intervals. Therefore, it has once again become more complex and full of strategic challenges than before this Indian territory of Pakistan occupied by Pakistan in India. We know that in 1947, when Pakistan made an armed attack on the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, India also responded with military retaliation.
The Indian Army had started pushing back the Pakistani intruders after the subjugation. But at the same time, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru turned to the United Nations on Pakistani infiltration on the advice of Governor-General Mountbatten. After which the ceasefire was announced, due to which the Indian Army had to stay behind and the Pakistan Army’s occupied land became Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir i.e. POJK.
India’s claim status on POJK weakens
Later, the then Prime Minister Nehru himself also realized that appealing to the United Nations was a historic mistake. But instead of taking lessons from this, a long range of mistakes was started and finally the situation of India’s claim on POJK was made weak. Whenever the Congress remained in power, then its apathy, and decisionlessness continued to be revealed on this issue. One after the other, there was a diplomatic and strategic mistakes, which the whole country is suffering today.
India had a big opportunity in 1957
In the year 1957, India had a big opportunity, when there was a lot of anti -people against the Government of Pakistan in Mirpur and Haveli region for the construction of Mangala dam. The situation deteriorated so much that martial law was imposed and more than 5,000 innocent people were arrested. The situation became frightening, the citizens started dying of hunger, and harassed by the Pakistani army, hundreds of people started migrating to India. A name emerged in this development especially – Sajda Begum, who was the wife of a Pakistani journalist and came to India after saving her life. At that time, his story became the headlines of newspapers.
Government of India lost a chance
Unfortunately, this opportunity was recorded as a diplomatic failure of the Government of India. Neither the then central government adequately raised this serious episode of human rights violations on international forums, nor made any concerted efforts to repeat its legal claim on the illegal occupation of Pakistan. Overall, the Government of India lost that historical occasion without any strategic profit.
Protests also held in 1970
There was also extensive protests against the Government of Pakistan in POJK in the year 1970. For the first time, Pakistani newspapers openly published those demonstrations openly. But even then the then Indian government failed to intervene and then removed an important opportunity by hand. Meanwhile, in the year 1964, news came that Pakistan has planned to construct road to Beijing. The issue also arose in the Rajya Sabha, but the then Minister of State for External Affairs Dinesh Singh said that the subject is in the attention of the government but denied every possibility of intervening.
Uproar over China-Pakistan alliance
In the year 1983, there was an uproar in the Rajya Sabha on this alliance of China-Pakistan but the then Foreign Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao only said that this will give serious consequences on the security of the country, so we are monitoring this issue. In 2010, the New York Times claimed that 7-11 thousand Chinese soldiers were deployed in Gilgit-Baltistan. Strategically, China has made its presence in many parts of POJK. But the Congress-led central governments remained inactive in their different term. Currently, this is the same, China-Pak economic corridor has become a big problem for India.
Silence on Suspicious role of China-Pakistan
In 1992, RL Bhati, Minister of State for External Affairs of the Congress Government, officially stated in the Rajya Sabha that Pakistan has illegally handed over an area of about 5,180 square kilometers to China. This entire area was part of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Then in the year 2010, China’s communist government addressed Pakistan -occupied Kashmir as ‘Northern Pakistan’. Even on these issues, the then central governments of the Congress kept silence on the suspicious role of China and Pakistan and made the issue highly complicated.
These are only a few examples, while the list of such incidents is much longer, in which the policies of the then Government of India weakened India’s claim on Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This situation continued to deteriorate. In fact, there were many occasions in history when the circumstances could go in favor of India, but they were either ignored or they got out of hand due to inaction.
Who is Devesh Khandelwal?
Devesh Khandelwal has been actively associated with writing and research work for the last 15 years. He has done research work with Dr. Shyam Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation, Makhanlal Chaturvedi National Journalism University, Integral Manavarshan Research and Development Foundation, Ideal Exchange Center, Prasar Bharati and all prestigious institutions. Apart from this, he has also served as Deputy General Manager in MyGov India. Devesh Khandelwal has also taken two research based books on Maharaja Hari Singh and Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
