Has India given up its claims on Kashmir? It would appear so, if the statements made by the Prime Minister and the home minister are any indication. Both of them have repeatedly gone on record saying that they will throw out the "intruders" from Indian territory.
In the same breath, however, they also reiterate that they will not cross the Line of Control (LoC). This is being widely seen as an act of great restraint and political wisdom. While it may indeed be so, what are the implications of the two statements put together on the larger question of Kashmir? Quite clearly that India has for gone its claims on that part of Kashmir which is under the occupation of Pakistan!
This is not an academic quibble but a serious political issue. I recollect being told by one of the architects of the Shimla Accord of the wide range of "visible concessions" that Indira Gandhi made to extract a very minor point of detail. The document refers all through to "a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir" and not of the "Jammu and Kashmir dispute". As generations of Indians diplomats will testify, the mileage that India has got out of this small detail has been enormous.
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To give just one example, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, which is supposed to monitor deployments and fortification on the LoC, is not allowed to do so by the Indian government. This in spite of the fact that the UN believes that their role is valid as per the Karachi Agreement. From the Indian point of view this aids in making Kashmir a bilateral issue and not an international one.
Such high quality diplomatic work comes to a nought when the Prime Minister and the home minister -- both veteran politicians -- speak so loosely about the most important political issue in the sub-continent. That they do so is also an indication of the deterioration in the quality of the bureaucracy over time.
Historically, the Indian position has been that Kashmir is not a disputed territory. The implication of this position on the LoC is that it is located in Indian territory. Against this, Pakistan has always maintained that Kashmir is a disputed territory. This, along with their position that the part of Kashmir under their occupation is "independent" with a separate Constitution, flag, President and Prime Minister, meant that they have never been able to claim either that the LoC is located in Pakistan or that it is their border.
Thus from the Indian point of view, the LoC is seen as Kashmir's inner boundary which was created following the cession of armed hostilities between India and Pakistan on January 1, 1949. At that point of time it was called the cease-fire line. It was delimited in a general sense in the Karachi Agreement which was signed on July 27, 1949. This cease-fire line was renamed as the Line of Control in 1972 following the Shimla Accord.
Notwithstanding its important political implications, the line is entirely military in conception. It has been drawn on the basis of the positions held by combatants at the time the fighting ended. It was based on the positions held by the armed forces of the two countries at the time of the cease-fire of December 17, 1971. It is not even formally marked on the ground since that would have implied a more permanent status than what either side was willing to accept.
As such, it is impossible to have cut and dry principles of LoC violations. The definition of a breach agreed upon by the two sides in 1949, were modified in 1965. The basic definitions were crossing the LoC within 500 yards of the line, firing and using explosives within five miles of the