The beauty of the northern end of my country is far fetched than what the finest lens in the world can capture. The beauty that would make writers fall short of words. But how can man leave something so beautiful uninfected by his greed. It has been strangulated by the realms of political gimmicks since the time I can remember. The political map of my country I saw during my geography assignments in school looks quite different from what it appears to be in a lot of places now. Even though on many occasion a common man is still referring to the older version, a few are aware that the revised one has already been accepted globally; the version in which the Line of Control has slashed off a part of our head.

Only when my Para-Commando brother-in-law recently got posted in Sonmarg, Kashmir, that my sister gave me an account of her personal experience about the life people lead in that part of the country. With the recent uprising owing to another political acid attack mixed with religious sentiments had made the situation there even more sensitive and critical. The local residents hoisting flags of the neighbouring enemy nation is not quite a sight that would make a patriot army personal comfortable, but their code of conduct to follow orders no matter what they are, bounds them from securing a clean solution to the problem which has been lingering on for past 61yrs; the problem which the diplomats in the government haven’t been able to solve till date.

How could our leaders term it as complete Independence in August, 1947 even when a month later Jinnah launched a war on the valley despite the negotiations with Nehru and the Maharajas in the presence of Britain as the fourth party on the table? Since that point in history, our neighbours have capitalised on every opportunity to seep through the cracks for taking over the valley at the cost of peace and harmony in the entire nation.

In a latest poll survey conducted by a print daily, the figures clearly surfaced the reality about what people in different parts of the nation have to say on this issue. Jammu was the only city which clearly stood out in complete favour of letting Kashmir free from the jurisdiction of India, as opposed to the entire nation. The other city that caught my attention was Bangalore, where more people had their views synchronising with those in Jammu as compared to the ones who opposed this notion. In an attempt to terrorise and threaten the entire nation, numerous terrorist groups have successfully implemented their master plans and bombarded the cities in the country which had never been victimized in such a fashion.

One cannot expect much from politicians who couldn't even punish and execute the convicts behind the bombing of the Indian Parliament. They will continue to talk about peace to score extra brownie points at the UN and impress Uncle Sam even when there is no peaceful way of settling this issue. In fact the solution to this problem is not the kinds that would need the finest diplomats from either ends sitting in a round table conference with Manmohan Singh popping anxiety pills before he puts his point across to big guns. Even peace loving Musharraf made it clear that a status quo on this issue was not an acceptable solution.

On the other hand it is not easy to implement the model being proposed at conferences encouraged by Washington. The model states that Kashmir should be delinked from Jammu and Ladakh, making it autonomous or quasi-independent, while India still gets to retain Jammu and Ladakh. Even though the Human Rights perspective favours that the Kashmiris should be granted their wish, there is no way one can blindly execute this without overlooking the major uncontrollable implications this action can have on the entire nation. There would be numerous independence movements sparking in different parts of the country namely Punjab, Gorkhaland, the North-East and the South.

So would this mean that our country would have to deal with a fate similar to Kosovo in the Balkans? People also raise fingers over the fact that Kashmir hasn't been given their fair share of attention from the center. But I completely disagree to this allegation, as they have been consistently enjoying attention since the time of independence. If someone really has to complain about being neglected, then it has to be the North-East part of the country and not Kashmir. But we cannot expect any peace with our neighbours till the time we don't strengthen ourselves and give up the vulnerable impression we have been putting up with over the years.

Peace doesn't mean, being cowards and not understanding the value of the lives we lose in form of army soldiers combating terrorism and in form of a common man who becomes the victim of serial blasts. Even though we have had a legacy of being the Brand Ambassadors of Peace ever since Gandhi won us freedom, we shouldn't forget the fate he met with was similar to what Bhagat Singh did. The only difference being, the former dint chose it, whereas the later accepted it as his choice.

Gandhi said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". It's the right time and issue where the authenticity of this wise thought would be put to test in the new era.

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