Libertarians on Kashmir

I would very much like to hear the opinion of Indian libertarians on Kashmir. Why libertarians in particular...because respect for ‘freedom’ is such a central component of libertarian philosophy.
This is how I see the Kashmir issue...Kashmir was a kingdom on the northern fringe of present day India and geographically contiguous to present day Pakistan. Even though the ruler was a Hindu Dogra, the population was predominantly Musim. The princely states, at the time of partition were given a choice of aligning with either India or Pakistan or remaining independent. The King of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh wanted to remain independent but after tribals from North Waziristan attacked Kashmir in a bid to forciby align it with Pakistan, Raja Hari Singh turned to India for help. India offered help on the condition that Raja Hari Singh sign the instrument of accession, which would make Kashmir a part of India. Raja Hari Singh agreed and signed the agreement. In 1948, India took the matter of Pakistani aggression to the UN Security Council. The resultant UN resolution demanded an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of all Pakistani presence and retention of a minimal Indian military presence. Furthermore, the UN resolution stipulated that the final disposition of Kashmir should be done based on the will of the people of J&K, to wit, a plebiscite was promised to the people of Kashmir and is part of the UN resolution of 1948. However, we have denied the Kashmiris this fundamental choice so far. Doesn’t this conflict libertarian polity?
My own thoughts are that a final resolution of the Kashmir issue can only be achieved through a plebiscite administered by a neutral UN team or even by one of the politically neutral Nordic countries. I do not want us to forcibly hang on to any area that does not want to be a part of India...and certainly not one that has been bleeding the coffers of our country for the past 60 years. Let there be a plebiscite and let us be brave enough to accept the result if the chips fall where we would not like them to. My only caveat is that the Kashmiri Pandits who were in Kashmir during the time of the first UN resolution, or their descendants should also be able to participate in this plebiscite. This is fair as they left Kashmir only due to the ethnic cleansing against them. Also, I personally think that this will greatly improve India’s chances of ending up on the right side at the conclusion of the plebiscite.

UAE telethon

The 10 hour UAE telethon managed to raise 49 million dirhams or nearly $13.5 million for the Lebanese victims of the war in Lebanon. The telethon, which started at 3pm on Friday, was organized by Dubai Media Incorporated, the Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Humanitarian and Charitable Foundation and the UAE Red Crescent Authority.
Considering that the population of UAE is about 4 million, this works out to over $3.3 per person. If we are able to raise around the same amount per person from India, that would work out to a whopping $3.67 billion (population 1,112,225,812).

LET’S SPEAK OF TEAMWORK RATHER THAN OPPOSITION

Maybe it is because blogger was working fine for me (sitting in Dubai) so I did not feel the same helplessness that some bloggers felt when some bloghosts were blocked, purportedly following instructions received from the government. During this entire episode, I came across various posts and articles written by bloggers that vented their collective ire at the government. Strong adjectives like ‘furious’ and many more similar meaning ones were used in these articles and posts. What really got to my goat was that most bloggers had started cursing the government for infringement on their freedom of expression even before trying to understand head or tail of why the government had asked (if they had) the ISP’s to block these sites. I may be naïve in my thinking here but I feel that if we have a democratically elected government, we should treat the government as an entity on our side of the fence rather than some satanic force hell-bent on doing us some sort of disservice. And this is not an isolated incident. Time and again, the tone that I have encountered in many blogs casts the government as the antagonist. Wouldn’t it serve all of us a little better if we showed a bit of empathy and perspective before we took pot-shots at our elected representatives? I agree that it is probably the lifelong experience of inefficiency in governance that has made cynics and critics of all of us. But I believe this is all the more reason we have to be on guard when wording our blogposts; it may not be wise to load our historical baggage of cynicism on all current issues. LET’S SPEAK OF TEAMWORK RATHER THAN OPPOSITION.

my chess group

Dr. Bashir Khan, that incorrigible old man comes to Al Hafsah restaurant in the evening and sets up his chess paraphernalia. He is a chess enthusiast like no other that I have seen before. One can set ones watch by the time he keeps for his games. We have a nice little group. The unwritten rules of our chess club are that Dr. Khan, by virtue of being the owner of the chess set as well as Al Hafsah restaurant will play continuously from one end, and play with white. The other players will rotate. Each player will play a set of three games with Dr. Khan and scores will be kept. It isn’t easy to beat the old man. He makes mistakes often enough but we all allow him to take back his moves. So if he is allowed to take back his foolish moves, while we are not, and he also makes some really good and creative moves, you can imagine that beating him becomes something of a task. I think I am the only player who has a positive score against him, i.e. more victories than losses.
Mustafa, the Indian Hyderabadi is our group is also a chess addict. One can expect the unexpected from him, both in terms of good and bad moves, more often good moves. Akram sa’ab, the Pakistani from Karachi is what I call a ‘method’ player. Not much flair but very solid. To bring in a cricketing analogy, Mustafa is like Dhoni while Akram is like Dravid. We have our own Afridi too. On his day, Atiq (another Indian Hyderabadi) is pretty much unbeatable but on his off-days he makes the most fundamental errors.

Feral Girl

I dunno if this story has hit the Indian media but I just read this exciting report coming out of Ukraine. Oxana Malaya is our modern day version of Mowgli. The girl was abandoned by her alcoholic parents and was taken care of by feral dogs? She lived in a kennel and acquired the behavior and mannerisms of her canine guardians. Till the age of eight, when she was found by humans, she growled, barked and crouched like a wild dog, sniffing her food before eating it. Amazingly, she was found to have acquired extremely acute senses of hearing, smell and sight.

blasts: a reaction in Dubai

As with you all, I also felt profoundly saddened by the Mumbai blasts and incensed at the sheer moral wretchedness of the perpetrators. Many bloggers have done an exceedingly fine job of covering the entire episode and I thank them for keeping NRI’s like me fully informed about all that has been happening. That Mumbai has recovered and returned to normalcy so soon after the blasts in a tribute to her fighting spirit and we all can take a leaf out of her book.
As can be guessed, there have been swift developments in the investigations so far. Calls from mobile phones to Dubai and Karachi were recorded immediately after the blasts from the blast locations. This would point to an involvement from across the border, not necessarily of the ISI; maybe even private operators. In any case, what is clear is that planning and executing an attack of this magnitude would be possible only for a handful of terrorist organizations. SIMI and Lashkar have denied any involvement and there is yet no concrete proof implicating them. Something has got to give, and soon at that. These blasts are also being linked to the cache of RDX that was recovered in a raid in Aurangabad earlier this year. It is but a matter of time before the jigsaw pieces fall in place.
Here in Dubai, people are more concerned with what they see as Israeli atrocities in the occupied territory as well as in Lebanon. Over the past couple of days, there has been an upsurge of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, with casualities on both sides. Of course, the papers here only hi-light the casualities on the Arab side and the editorials are full of thinly veiled invectives at Israel and America.
My Pakistani friends, while being sympathetic towarde the people of Mumbai and while firmly denouncing the actions of the terrorists who are responsible for the Mumbai blasts, are also a little defensive as they feel that the first thing India will do is point a finger at Pakistan. While we have been fairly restrained so far, I can also see that happening, especially when the investigations reveal some clear connections from across the border. Manmohan Singh has also made strong statements about Pakistan not being able or capable of fulfilling its commitment of 2004 of not allowing any terrorist activity on its soil against India.

Give them back their passports!

If this is not most ironic, please tell me what is. In UAE, it is a common practice for employers to keep the passports of their employees, especially of their blue collar employees. According to the UAE Ministry of Labour though, this is illegal. However, according to a Gulf News (the most widely circulated daily in UAE) report, all ministries, including those of Finance and Industry, Interior, Labour and Social Affairs are retaining passports of their expatriate staff. Some ministries keep passports on instructions of the Civil Service Department, others on directives from the Ministry of Finance and Industry, which demand that passports of cashiers must be retained. Doesn’t that reek of the most abominable hypocrisy?

Jashn-e-Ghulam Ali

For all you Ghulam Ali fans, here's some good news. Aligarians has organised Jashn-e-Ghulam Ali from the 1st to the 15th of July, a fortnight of beautiful Ghazals and Nazms sung by Ghulam Ali. Each day a new composition will be posted along with the lyrics and meaning of difficult Urdu words. It is hoped that such online festivals will help the admirers appreciate the music of Ghulam Ali better. Please mark your calendar and ensoi...