On Thursday 21 Aug 2008 4:13:52 pm Bonobashi wrote: > And if they vote for us, Shiv can buy the beer.
er my dear fellow Macaulayite. Do you really think Indian politicians will agree to an election/vote/referendum/plebiscite that they are not sure of winning? Or at least trying to win again after a few years even if they lose now? Pakistan will surely rig their side of the elections. And India? India will make sure it wins. "Neutral observers" will never be allowed in. Indians have a chip on their collective shoulders about the role of the "great powers" and will not tolerate anyone. As for other nations - Indians consider every nation on earth to be a lackey of one or other of the said great powers. (Hello. India is "non aligned" remember) The mess after a sham referendum will only mean that India is publcly willing to play the same game as Pakistan rather than rest on its belief of its own moral superiority. I repeat that the game is to make it impossible for Kashmir to secede by sinking in so much money and effort that all separatism looks like ingratitude. The distant threat of repealing Article 370 is always held in abeyance - just like the actual deadly descent of Damocles' sword is always a possibility. If Article 370 goes - "Kashmiris" will be about 25 million Indians from Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Punjab, Orissa and Kerala. The "Kashmir problem" started as part of the Pakistan problem. It will settle along with the Pakistan problem. As far as I can tell the vast majority of Indians are willing to sit it out. It is a small minority of sensitive and educated Indians who think that Kashmiri separatists have a case. Having fought several wars to keep Pakistan the nation state off Kashmir it is totally naive to think that a few separatists having yet another orgy of rioting is going to change anything. Indians by and large are carrying around this huge chip on their shoulder that I referred to earlier. Indians - predominantly Hindus have this enormous grievance that makes them feel that the world has given them a raw deal and that the world does not give them due importance even after they have been wronged (in a lo-ong list of historic wrongs). The Kashmir problem a symbol of one of the ways Indians feel they have been wronged. No viewpoint other than keeping Kashmir a part of India is going to be tolerated. Arguments about suffering Kashmiris are a tremendous joke because several hundred million Indians feel they are suffering too and feel as "deprived" as any Kashmiri and the votes of a few million Kashmiris is going to have to be counted against the votes of several hundred million Indians. The India politician wil never forget that unles he is suicidal. It is unique to the politically detached English speaking elite of India to be unable to see how Indian emotions are used to ensure that Kashmir will go nowhere in a hurry. A few Arundhati Roys and Vir Sanghvis notwithstanding. shiv
