This refers to the letter “Bottomless valley” (October 12). This is what J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in the J&K Assembly: “Jammu and Kashmir is an outstanding issue between India and Pakistan with international recognition. We have acceded to India under certain agreements and unlike Hyderabad and Junagarh we haven’t merged with India.” Obviously, Abdullah didn’t say this inadvertently but it was a well-considered move. No wonder Omar’s speaking the language of the separatists thrilled the hardliner separatist, Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who claimed victory In Omar’s speech. In 1947, the maharaja of J&K requested New Delhi to send Indian forces to the Valley to protect his state from Pakistani invaders knocking at his doors and signed the instrument of accession. If, after six decades of New Delhi’s appeasement and pampering of three generations of Abdullahs, this is their stand and even sections of Indian think tank are shaky about J&K’s status in the Indian Union, it is high time New Delhi removed all constitutional and non-constitutional barriers between J&K and the rest of India and brought the state on a par with other Indian states.
M C Joshi, Lucknow