Contending that India's commitment to holding a plebiscite or proposing to make the LoC the international border were legally untenable, advocate and author Aman Hingorani on Wednesday advocated approaching the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Kashmir dispute.
Launching here his book "Unravelling the Kashmir Knot", which "challenges" the national and international discourse on Kashmir, Hingorani blamed the Indian political leadership for "messing up" the issue since its inception.
"The basic structure of the Constitution cannot be changed and India's territorial integrity being a basic structure, how can the Executive propose to give up Pakistan Administered Kashmir to Pakistan. The talks of making the Line of Control (LoC) the international border and giving up the Pakistan Administered Kashmir is legally untenable," he said.
Referring to the Supreme Court, Hingorani in his book also challenges the legality of India's commitment to holding a plebiscite.
"When the Supreme Court itself had declared that Hari Singh (last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir) was a sovereign ruler of the state and possessed the power to order accession of Kashmir to India, then how can the Executive talk of holding a plebiscite," argues Hingorani.
Talking about resolving the issue, Hingorani said India should make a legal reference to the ICJ with a view to confirm that the entire territory of Kashmir, including the parts administered by Pakistan and China are an integral part of India.
"Once that is established, it will automatically be held that the parts of Kashmir held by China and Pakistan are illegally occupied and through aggression. They will then be bound to vacate those parts," the author said.
"When there is a dispute about the ownership of a property, you go to the courts with the title deeds... it is something like that," he added, pointing to the chapters of the book which deal with how India through a successful reference to the ICJ can resolve the issue and win the trust of Kashmiris.
Basing his book on declassified British documents, the Supreme Court advocate has described the Kashmir issue as an "end product of British colonial politics" and blamed the political leadership of India for "raising doubts about the unconditional nature of the accession of Kashmir to India" by taking it to the UN.
--IANS
and/ssp/bim/bg
