New Delhi
15 October 2010
India is in no particular hurry to resume defence exchanges with China, which
were suspended in August after Indian Army's Northern Command chief Lt Gen BS
Jaswal was refused a visa because he was serving in Jammu and Kashmir. Indications
are that New Delhi will wait for Beijing to revert to its position of "neutrality" on Jammu
and Kashmir before revisiting the suspension.
External affairs minister SM Krishna hinted as much when he said in the course of a
breakfast interaction with journalists here Friday that India expects China to be sensitive
to its core concerns such as Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh just as China
seeks India's understanding on certain issues.
"Jammu and Kashmir is a legitimate part of India. This has to be recognised, respected
and acted upon by China," Mr Krishna said, adding that Jammu and Kashmir is an
integral part of India by virtue of its accession and of the "vibrant democratic process"
witnessed there in the last 60-odd years.
He iterated that India will not accept the "stapled" Chinese visas for Indian nationals
living in Jammu and Kashmir and that India's engagement of China will not come at the
expense of "compromising our national stand in respect of borders and stapled visas".
The otherwise reticent Mr Krishna went on to explain why, historically, somebody like
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah is not wrong in saying that the state
had only acceded with the Union of India.
"It is a fact that Jammu and Kashmir has acceded to India just like Mysore acceded to
India," he said with the confidence of someone who has more than an abiding interest in
law.
Few would remember that Mr Krishna graduated in 1959 with a Master of Comparative
Law, an international LLM degree offered at the Southern Methodist University's Dedman
School of Law in the United States and later worked as a professor of international law at
Renukacharya Law College in Bengaluru.
He noted that like in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharaja of Mysore had
signed an accession treaty. In that sense "I am a citizen of Mysore," Mr Krishna
chuckled. "[So] I don't think Omar Abdullah has said anything objectionable".
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