BHTOO-SWARAN
SINGH TALKS- EXPECTATIONS WITHOUT RESULTS
(By
Abdul Majid Zargar)
India & Pakistan
have held nearly one hundred & fifty
round of talks directly or indirectly attributable to settlement of Kashmir
issue. But as the veteran leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani often reiterates,
sarcastically though, these have been exercises in futility, for reasons not
far to seek. Bhutoo-Swaran singh talks in 1962 is one such exercise in the long
list of futile attempts which generated huge excitement but not the desired result.
The war with China in 1962 had a substantial
impact on the Kashmir problem. The USA & Britain had goaded Pakistan for
not opening up the Kashmir front while the Indian army was taking a beating in
the Himalayas. After the unilateral ceasefire & withdrawal by Chinese Army,
there was Anglo-American pressure on Nehru to settle the Kashmir problem with
Pakistan. It was rather a reward of sorts to Pakistan for its good &
as-instructed behavior during India’s war with China.
Hence a long round of
talks between India & Pakistan was set in motion. The Indian Side was
represented by Foreign Minster Swaran Singh & Pakistan side by his Counter
part, Young Zulifikar Ali Bhuttoo.
The
first round of talks started in December 1962 in Rawalpindi, then Capital of
Pakistan(Islamabad was under Construction). Before the talks began, India had decided to seek a
settlement of the Kashmir issue by ceding to Pakistan a part of the Kashmir
valley, roughly 1500 sq Miles, by
modifying the cease-fire line to Pakistan’s advantage . The only question was
whether this concession would be
acceptable to Pakistan. The Pakistani side knew this well even before the
finalization of itinerary because the US and the UK had kept Pakistani
officials informed through respective diplomatic channels. However, the talks
were derailed even before these were started because of an
unexpected announcement by Pakistan
about a provisional boundary agreement with China. Indian side interpreted this
as Pakistan ceding a part of Kashmir to China resulting in a stalemate even
though Ayub Khan took great pains to explain to Indian side that it was not so.
The second round
of talks started in Delhi in mid January 1963.
Pakistani delegation was put up in Rashtrapati Bhawan. Pakistan side
wanted “principles” for partitioning Kashmir
settled first by taking into
account the “composition of the population of the state”, the control of the
rivers, requirements of defence and other “relevant considerations” The Indian
side urged that any “territorial readjustments” should be on a rational basis,
taking into account geographical, administrative and other considerations and
causing the least possible disturbance to the life and property of the people.
The gap between the two positions could not have been wider. The talks ended
with a joint declaration that the two
sides agreed that the final settlement, when reached, should contain some sort of a declaration that the
two countries wanted to live in “peace and friendship forever”.
The third round of talks due to begin in
Karachi 0n February 8th 1963 had an inauspicious start. Two days
before the due date, G.Parthasathy, Ambassador to Pakistan came to Delhi with a
paper in his hand entitled ‘KASHMIR: Elements of a
Settlement’. He reported that the American embassy in Pakistan had given him
this document, and was told that it was
a “joint Anglo-American decision” that had been officially presented to Bhutto.
Prime Nehru & Swaran Singh were miffed as no such paper was received by
Delhi. They suspected that foreign
powers were directly & indirectly helping Pakistan to wrest a major portion
of the State without taking India’s
interests into account.
After
discussing the issue of foreign meddling threadbare, the prime minister asked
Swaran Singh whether he still wanted to go to Karachi. After a brief discussion
it was decided that the Karachi talks should go on, but before that, letters
should be sent to America & Britain
tersely rejecting the Anglo-American proposal. The letters were
dispatched almost immediately after the Prime Minster himself vetted the draft
thrice & chose a softer & milder vocabulary than in the initial draft .
The Indian
delegation was carrying with it maps of Kashmir, indicating the concessions New Delhi was prepared to make to
settle the Kashmir issue. On this map Swaran Singh indicated
his willingness to concede an additional
area of 1,500 square miles of Kashmir valley to Pakistan .Bhutto rejected the Indian offer
disdainfully and wanted the whole of
Jammu & Kashmir willing only to leave
the small town of Kathua for India. Swaran Singh told Bhutto that his
idea is unworkable. The atmosphere became tense when Indian Foreign Secretary
Gundevia made a comment in lighter vein.
: “ Bhutto Saheb-Do you really want us to go home with this? What
do we tell our people? They would say that we went to Pakistan for three days
aur kachhua le ke aye (after three days
we brought back a tortoise)”. There was a burst of laughter among all the delegates.
The fourth &
final round of talks took place in Calcutta on March 12. Since the parties had
already adopted tough stands, the result was a foregone conclusion. Swaran
Singh proposed a temporary postponement which was resented by USA & Britain
on the ground that even a temporary break would
jeopardize the outcome. USA even threatened that ministerial talks, then
in progress in Washington to finalize US military aid to India would also get
effected.
However, none of
these had any effect on India and the talks failed without any tangible result.
No comments:
Post a Comment