On Tuesday 19 Aug 2008 10:02:30 pm Perry E. Metzger wrote: > > On Tuesday 19 Aug 2008 8:34:48 pm Perry E. Metzger wrote: > >> The purpose of a legal system is to provide utility for the people > >> among whom it operates. That is the only goal that deserves > >> respect. If the sheet of paper specifies actions that on balance harm > >> people then it deserves to be crumpled up and tossed out. > > > > OK. If you say so.. > > Do you believe otherwise? Is the function of government to impose > arbitrary rule, or to serve the needs of the people living in the > governed territory? If it is to rule, then why should anyone, other > than someone interested in the raw and arbitrary exercise of power for > their own benefit, want it?
Er - I.m not in this any more. You lost me when you decided to toss out the Indian constitution. It is crucial to this discussion . The "government" and "what the government does" is totally dependent on that piece of paper you have just tossed out - the constitution. At least that's the way it works in India. If you toss out the constitution in India - it gets even easier to eliminate Kashmiri people and keep the land. Article 370 of the Indian tossed out piece of paper expressly disallows Indians who are not Kashmiris (such as myself) from owning land in Kashmir. If a parliamentary vote can remove this Article, Indians from other parts of India could settle in Kashmir and India could do to Kashmir what China is doing in Tibet -that is inundating the local population with Chinese from other parts of the country. Kashmiri separatists are actually being taken for a ride by the government of India where the separatists think they are justified in agitating even while they are protected by a special artificial clause (a law) that stops Indians from settling gin Kashmir. That is like saying that people from Delhi can't settle in Bangalore. But by doing this the government is gaining brownie points and the separatists know this. They (the separatists and the people of Kashmir, (Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists) are faced with a fait accompli. if they agitate for separation they are reminded that their agitation is hot air that rests on article 370 that protects their special status. If that provision goes India can dump several tens of millions of landless Indians from Bihar and MP and Jharkhand in Kashmir and tell the Kashmiris that they have to live like the people of any other state in India and share their land. Other than war with external support (Pakistan anyone?) defeating the Indian nation state - Kashmiri separatists do not have the chance of a fart in a hurricane of getting what they want. Not only is India going to hold on - it is holding on to the moral high ground as well by implementing a law that prevents Indians from doing what the Chinese are doing in Tibet. Most Indians don't even seem to understand the game that is being played out. And everyone else is clueless and powerless. shiv
