LONDON: India and Pakistan had a verbal tiff again when the latter tried to raise the Kashmir issue at the international labor conference in Geneva Tuesday.
Ambassador Chadha rejected outright the Pakistan elevation’s allegations that its efforts to improve people’s living standards were being hampered by the situation in Kashmir.
He appealed to Pakistan to refrain from indulging in empty rhetoric but let its deeds speak for themselves and to abandon its confrontationist approach and join India ina spirit of cooperation to herald peace in the region.
As for Pakistan’s reference to the right of self-determination of Kashmiris and bunching the issue with that of Palestine and south Africa Chadha said this only betrays Pakistan’s poor appreciation of the historical background and seriousness of the two issues. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and it is an universally accepted principle that the right of self nation cannot be applied to the integral part of an independent and sovereign state Chadda claimed. Chadha told the conference that there is a sense of Deja Vu as again the Pakistan delegation tries to inject bilateral polemics into the deliberations of the international labor conference evincing a lack of restraint. Pakistan’s attempt to bring in such an extraneous issue in this forum could only revert divert the attention of those present here from the serious business and tasks before them and is therefore to be deplored Chadha said.
He asserted that if Pakistan’s efforts to improve its people’s living standards are being adversely affected it is because it is diverting resources to train militants and infiltrate them across the line of actual control into India to foment violence.
Chadha claimed Pakistan’s interventionist provocations in Kashmir are now well known and well-documented even in their own press and in the statements of their leaders The Muslims of Kashmir have been fighting to throw of Indian rule since 1947
Article extracted from this publication >> June 21, 1991
