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C Subramaniam advocates mediation by neutral country in Indo-Pak dispute

Elder statesman C Subramaniam has advocated that India and Pakistan should seek the good offices of a neutral country to resolve the contentious Kashmir issue.

Subramaniam released to the media a letter he had written to Inder Kumar Gujral when the latter was prime minister, on Saturday, the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was eager to find a solution to the issue in the 1960s, so that the people of the two countries could debate on the issue.

Subramaniam felt that the good offices a neutral country like the Scandinavian ones should be sought to come out with a modus operandi for recognising the Line of Control as the boundary, subject to any adjustments proposed by an independent boundary commission, after holding a referendum under the auspices of the United Nations in the valley on both sides of LoC and referring the dispute to a mutually acceptable body for arbitration. Even the late Mohammed Ali Jinnah had advocated the idea.

In his letter to Gujral on October 2 last year, to which the latter had replied on January 20, Subramaniam welcomed the Gujral Doctrine under which India had taken the initiative on its own.

He pointed out that strenuous efforts of military and paramilitary forces in the last 50 years, had not been able to make any impact and in places like Siachen, lives of officers and men had been sacrificed in helplessly facing the cruel rigours of nature.

Article 51-D of the Constitution imposed an obligation on the Union government to settle international disputes by arbitration, under which the issue fell, he added.

The country was yet to prepare the people's minds towards this salient issue, he said and added the Shimla Agreement signed by the two countries had also not yielded the desired results.

UNI

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