NEW DELHI, 22 September 2004 — India has ruled out any territorial concessions to Pakistan in disputed Kashmir in a statement issued ahead of a meeting in New York between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
The Foreign Ministry statement followed a Time magazine article quoting an unnamed Indian official as saying India was willing to “adjust” the so-called Line of Control in Kashmir, a military cease-fire boundary, “by a matter of miles” to “help defuse the situation in Kashmir.”
“This is completely and wholly inaccurate. Any suggestion the prime minister will make such an offer is factually wrong,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in the statement e-mailed late Monday to New Delhi from London which Manmohan Singh visited en route to the United States.
The US newsmagazine in its latest edition reported Manmohan would propose the boundary shift to Musharraf when the two hold their first talks in New York Friday on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session.
Sarna said Manmohan was looking forward to “discussing all matters of bilateral interest” to Musharraf but “there is no question of any territorial concession being offered by India to Pakistan.”
Manmohan is slated to meet Musharraf as part of an ongoing dialogue between India and Pakistan aimed at ending nearly six decades of hostility over Kashmir, spark of two of three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
The two countries began talks in January on a wide range of issues but have made scant headway over Kashmir where a deadly 15-year revolt against New Delhi’s rule has raged since 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of stoking the revolt in the Himalayan territory, a charge Pakistan denies, saying it only gives moral support to what it calls a freedom struggle.
Both countries hold part of Muslim-majority Kashmir but claim it in full. Political analysts have said some kind of territorial adjustment could eventually lead to normalization of relations between the rivals but such a settlement would be difficult to reach.
The Indian premier, figuring on the Time’s cover was interviewed by Time Deputy Editor William Green and its New Delhi-based South Asia bureau chief Alex Perry.
Regarding his upcoming meeting with Musharraf, Manmohan told Time: “Getting to know each other is important. But we are willing to discuss all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, and find solutions rooted in ground realities.”
A senior Musharraf aide said: “We want to make things happier there (New York). We want implementable ideas …and hopefully the meeting will break new ground in Kashmir diplomacy.”
The big question is: Will it do it? Even though Indian and Pakistan foreign ministers have completed a round of talks on Kashmir, they are still nowhere near a breakthrough.
While Pakistan seeks a UN mandated plebiscite to decide if Kashmiris want to merge with India or Pakistan, New Delhi is against external interference in this bilateral dispute.
Behind the scenes, even if India and Pakistan are close to making some territorial adjustment, they are least likely to make it public at present.
With the nuclear-armed countries having been adamant about not yielding an inch to the other in the past , any territorial adjustment is likely to provoke a protest from the people and politicians. Besides, the Kashmiris eager for an independent state — Azad Kashmir — are likely to be the last ones to accept the compromise and first to protest against it.
