Executive Summary
- The State of Jammu and Kashmir with a population of 12.5 million is one of India’s 29 States.
- Legally and constitutionally Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Indian Union, with its own Constitution. Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India was full and final. The only issue that remains unsettled is the return to India of all those parts of the State that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.
- Pakistan’s claims to Jammu and Kashmir are neither supported by international law nor history. Pakistan sees Kashmir only in religious terms, as a Muslim majority area. Kashmiri languages and culture have nothing in common with the Punjab dominated ethos of Pakistan. Pakistan’s self-professed role as the homeland of the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent was rejected by the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, and by the fact that the third highest population of Muslims in the world today lives in India.
- India’s federal, democratic and pluralistic Constitution and ethos contain enough safeguards for dissent to be aired, and for all differences to be resolved through peaceful and Constitutional means. This is true for Jammu and Kashmir as it is true for any other part of the Indian Union.
- Since 1947, the Government of India and the Government of J&K have invested billions of dollars into the development of the State’s infrastructure, telecommunication, IT, roads and highways, water resources, education, health, tourism, agriculture, industry and handicrafts. Today, the State’s social and economic indicators are better than of many other States in the country.
- Kashmiri youth live, work and study all across India, including in para-military and Armed Forces of the country. Many are part of the Indian diaspora in other countries.
- Like other Indian citizens, the people of J&K have exercised their democratic right of franchise repeatedly at all levels since India’s independence – national, State, and local. In all cases, transfer of power at the State level after elections has been peaceful and within the Constitution.
- The root of the problems in J&K has been Pakistan’s sponsorship and support to cross-border terrorism. The Pakistan Army and ISI have for decades created, financed and nurtured a huge infrastructure of terrorist organisations as part of a ‘proxy war’ to destroy Kashmiri society, its culture and its people with the aim of radicalising society and promoting extremist and violent ideologies, loss of lives, and creating disaffection among the population.
- India, in the fulfilment of its duties to defend and protect its citizens from external danger, has taken whatever steps are necessary to preserve the country’s Constitution, unity and integrity and value systems.
- Today, Pakistan has become the epicentre of terrorism. Its own creations are biting Pakistan’s back. All Pakistan’s neighbours have either been victims or feel threatened by its terrorist infrastructure. International bodies such as the UN Security Council and the Financial Action Task Force and many countries, including some of Pakistan’s close friends and allies, have asked Pakistan to give up its terrorist ideology and join the mainstream of the civilised world.
- The FAQs below seek to correct the distorted and false narrative that Pakistan has been trying to create on J&K at great cost to its financial resources and to its international credibility.
