NEW DELHI: India last week, categorically said that it would not succumb to any US pressure on Kashmir and asserted that the trouble-torn northern state would remain “integral part of the country and not a disputed territory. Articulating India’s response to what members in Rajya Sabha called a shift in US policy on Kashmir, the Minister of State for External Affairs, R.L.Bhatia said “Kashmir is integral part of India and that there could be no mediation on it.
When agitated members, particularly from the Opposition, repeatedly asked if the Indian Government saw any motive behind the shift in the US stand, the Minister said the US has been consistent on its Kashmir policy and lately there has been only a shift in its emphasis and articulation.
The US has always maintained that the Kashmir issue has to be solved bilaterally by India and Pakistan, he sand replying to supplementary during question hour
Dissatisfied by the reply, the Opposition members wondered whether the US was trying to pressurize India to sign the non-proliferation treaty or on human rights by shifting its stance on Kashmir
To this the Minister was categorical in saying the US motive might be anything, but India stood firm and the Indian Parliament has passed a resolution to assert that Kashmir was integral part of India
Bhatia said the US Government was of the view that the so-called Kashmir dispute was a major source of India- Pakistan tensions
He said the US believes that Pakistan has advanced a program to acquire with foreign support weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. It also harbors erroneously a brief that India has a nuclear weapons program.
He said Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear weapons program was well known and has been confirmed rune and again
India neither has nor intends to ac quire weapons of mass destruction he said adding the real danger, there- fore is of “nuclear adventurism on the part of Pakistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 25, 1994
