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Pakistan-occupied Kashmir belongs
to India: Advani

Terming Jammu and Kashmir as a "case of missed opportunities" for India, Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Tuesday regretted the country's failure to forcefully tell the world that parts of the state illegally occupied by Pakistan and China belonged to India.

"J&K legitimately and constitutionally belongs to India. But there is a view that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir belongs to Pakistan. PoK belongs to India. It has been our failure to project this to the world," he told the India Today conclave in New Delhi.

The home minister also ruled out the return of J&K to pre-1953 position, favoured "greater devolution" of powers to the state and visualised India and Pakistan coming together in some type of framework in the "years to come".

"There cannot be full autonomy, as our Constitution does not have such a provision. Our manifesto's objective is to reduce over-centralisation and give greater powers to the states,"

Replying to questions after delivering his keynote address on the concluding day of the three-day conclave, Advani said: "The history of J&K called for even greater devolution of powers. What we objected to was return of the state to pre-1953 position."

The home minister said the Centre would welcome the J&K government to identify areas for the exercise.

In his speech on 'My India: The Vision for the Future', Advani said; "I think that it is not out of place to mention my hope and desire to see the coming together of India and Pakistan in some type of confederal framework in the years to come. This is not an impossible dream."

Advani recalled how the two Germanys reunited by pulling down the Berlin Wall and referred to signs of reconciliation between the two Koreas and Europe becoming a single monetary union with a common currency.

The home minister said: "India, Pakistan and Bangladesh share so much in common. We can continue to remain separate and sovereign nations and yet voluntarily opt for expanding the areas of cooperation."

"What is needed are small but sincere steps towards resolving bilateral issues peacefully and remaining steadfastly committed to the path of closer ties between all our peoples, businesses and governments," he said.

Recalling Jana Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay's dream of an Akhand Bharat, Advani said Upadhyay felt that partition was a mistake and that a day would come when both India and Pakistan would realise it was a folly.

"Partition was a tragedy. At the same time, partition is a reality. We in India have accepted the reality of Pakistan. However, I often wonder whether the ruling establishment in Pakistan has accepted the reality of a secular, democratic and united India," he said.

On the current status of Indo-Pak ties, he said Islamabad must convince New Delhi through action that it has abandoned the use of terrorism in J&K and elsewhere in India.

Asking Pakistan to stop training, arming, financing and providing shelter to terrorists, he said: "Should that happen, India will not be found wanting in engaging Pakistan in a very meaningful dialogue on all bilateral issues, including the issue of J&K."

He said the Vajpayee government was sincere in demonstrating its commitment to seeking tension-free relations with Pakistan.

Maintaining that he understood if the rulers in Islamabad had a different view on the constitutionally and democratically ratified accession of J&K to India, Advani said, "Such issues should be discussed and resolved through dialogue between two neighbours wedded to the principle of good neighbourliness."

"Instead, Pakistan has opted for conflict and hostility, both open and covert," he said, adding that the frustrating outcome of a open military conflict with India was well-known to Pakistan.

"I am sure that more and more people in Pakistan are now also convinced that the same outcome is awaiting their nation if it continues with the dangerous policy of aiding and abetting cross-border terrorism, fuelled by religious extremism, as a matter of state policy," he said.

Advani said he welcomed President Pervez Musharraf's "bold and forthright" denunciation of terrorism and religious extremism in his January 12 address to the nation. "No leader of Pakistan has rejected theocracy as categorically as President Musharraf has."

But what Musharraf has stated with regard to terrorism originating from Pakistan and aimed at J&K "seems tactical", he said.

"It does not indicate any strategic shift. We have, therefore, made it clear that we shall judge Pakistan's sincerity and commitment to fight terrorism only after we have seen its corresponding action on the ground," he said.

Advani said: "Our cynicism and scepticism about Pakistan runs so deep that nice sounding words are no longer enough."

"India has been bled by cross-border terrorism for far too long. We have also been betrayed far too often," he said, adding that on top of this experience came the December 13 attack on Parliament.

It was after the Parliament attack that the government decided that New Delhi's response to the challenge of cross-border terrorism was ""going to be different from what it has been so far," he said.

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