Prior to August 5, 2019, the fault line triggered by Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was a 70-year-old vulnerability of India which was diplomatically exploited by the worldwide group—mates and foes alike.

Given that Article 370, a brief provision within the Indian Constitution, created an impression that the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, which included Ladakh, now a separate Union territory, was not absolutely built-in with India, the difficulty had turn into a diplomatic lever for mates and foes to extract varied concessions from beleaguered India. What started as India’s want to hunt UN assist to counter Pakistan‘s invasion of Kashmir in 1947-48, quickly deteriorated right into a full-fledged India-Pakistan wrangle, which was exploited by Pakistan and its then allies to pin India down globally. “ It was tantamount to a burglary turned into a house owner-thief dispute,” stated a former international secretary. The spiritual radicalization in J&Ok for the reason that Nineties and Islamic jihad within the identify of freedom wrestle, engineered by the Pakistan deep state, had been all merchandise of this contentious article in some ways. The media narrative about die-hard Afghan battle veterans working within the Valley instilled worry not solely among the many public but additionally amongst safety forces at massive.

Before 2019, Pakistan used this text with the assistance of the Left-Liberal media to persuade the worldwide viewers that J & Ok was the unfulfilled a part of the two-nation concept that created India and Pakistan with spiritual denomination because the very foundation. Various options like “Chenab” of “Jhelum” formulation had been bandied about by Western suppose tanks with vested pursuits to apparently resolve the Kashmir difficulty, a lot in order that Pakistan dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf was satisfied that India beneath Atal Bihari Vajpayee would deal on the Valley, which he referred to as a core difficulty, throughout his go to to Agra in July 2001. Musharraf like his previous predecessors additionally referred to as Kashmir the jugular (Shahrag) vein of Pakistan in its bid to pressure India to cede Kashmir with the assistance of armed Islamic jihadists. Islamabad’s wishes had been fueled by then-US leaders who wanted to indulge Pakistan in Kashmir in order that their Afghan calculus didn’t go awry. This was additionally the time when junior US diplomats used to evangelise India on Kashmir and human rights and had been additionally supported by sections of Indian and international media. However, the West, notably US, UK and Germany, had been silent on cross-border terrorism practised by Pakistan in J&Ok until such time 9/11 terror assaults adopted by the Jaish-e-Mohammed assault passed off within the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. But the sport turned after the dastardly Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba assault on military camp in Kaluchak in May 2002 as India went on the verge of going throughout the border to show Pakistan a navy lesson.

By abrogating Article 370 and Article 35 A after which publishing the brand new map defining the cartographic boundaries of each Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have closed the chapter on Kashmir completely. The new map of the 2 UTs covers Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Northern Areas, Shaksgam Valley that Pakistan illegally ceded to China in 1963, and Aksai Chin occupied by China for the reason that Nineteen Fifties.

Today, when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar goes on bilateral and multilateral visits overseas, nobody raises the subject of Jammu and Kashmir because the UT is completely built-in into India even on authorized paper. Even although Pakistan-sponsored terror assaults do happen in J&Ok, the frequency has gone down as politicians in Islamabad and generals in Rawalpindi stay in worry of retaliation by Modi’s India. The phrase “Kashmir” doesn’t even discover a point out within the newest peace proposal floated by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif.