There was a time when the mere mention of the word Kashmir would send emotions soaring among the people of both these neighbouring countries. Not anymore! Just few years back, Pakistanis would get emotionally charged on the issue of Kashmir. There was always the refrain “Kashmir Banega Pakistan”, Kashmir will become Pakistan. They were not so much concerned with Kashmiris but with the land of Kashmir, which for them was the unfinished agenda of that unfortunate and tragic partition of the sub-continent. Qaid-e-Azam had said that K represented Kashmir in the word Pakistan and without it Pakistan was incomplete. It was the jugular vein of the newly created country. Pakistanis felt cheated by India, which had conspired with the British to deprive them of this rightful part of their country. Sometimes the emotions ran so high that every Pakistani was prepared to sacrifice his life to liberate Kashmir and make it a part of Pakistan. They fought three wars to achieve this objective but failed. They never bothered to look at the problem from the view point of Kashmiris but only as an unsettled score with India. Kashmir was the handle with which they could beat India and emotionally integrate their own people on this common agenda. It was a holy war. Every Muslim had to fight it. Kashmiris also held similar sentiments simply because Pakistan sympathised with their suffering. For them Pakistan meant emancipation from centuries old bondage. Bhutto had vowed to wage a thousand year war against India to free Kashmiris. No wonder Kashmir was the only place in the sub-continent where people faced bullets while protesting against his hanging by “crazy” Pakistanis! It was difficult for them to imagine how his own people could ever give such a relentless warrior for their Rights such a shoddy treatment! Over the past few years the emotions seem to have cooled down. Realities of the situation have slowly dawned on the general public as well as the Government. Kashmir is no longer the easy handle to whip up popular sentiments and emotions. Pakistanis seem to have realized that Kashmiris themselves have a very serious problem for which they are themselves fighting and in the process dying in large numbers. On the other hand, their immediate concern is the very survival of their country. After the loss of East Pakistan, they have probably realized that India is not so easy to over power. It is gradually assuming the role of a super power, even though a very messy one, and its military defeat is impossible. Their most pressing concern is water. They do not have enough water for agriculture as well as power generation. They can compensate for power by using Iranian gas but water for irrigation and drinking has no solution in sight except construction of huge dams for which there is already a tussle going on between various provinces. As mentioned by General Musharaf in his research paper, the future wars of sub-continent may be fought on water. The saner elements of the society are more concerned about the economic development of their country. They are trying to retrieve it from the status of a failed state, which Pakistan was about to be declared by the world community. Roti, Kapda aur Makkan, (Food, Clothing and Shelter) is the in slogan and not Kashmir Banega Pakistan (Kashmir Will Become Pakistan). They can achieve this only if Kashmir is out of the way. Emotions and sentiments are slowly giving way to practical reality. They cannot allow Kashmir to bleed their country economically, psychologically and politically to a virtual death. Pakistan comes first and not Kashmir! Demilitarisation and Self-Governance is the symbolic gesture of this realisation.

Similar is the situation on the Indian side. From Jawahar Lal Nehru’s obsession to possess Kashmir at any cost to Murli Manohar Joshi’s crusade to unfurl Indian National Flag in Lal Chowk during the peak of militancy, the Indians too seem to have cooled down, emotionally, even though the intransigence of the ruling Brahmin Elite to keep Kashmir regardless of the material as well as human cost still persists. There was a time when the refrain “Kashmir is an Integral Part of India” would not cease. It was repeated ad nauseum on every occasion and in every forum. Kashmir was never “emotionally” an Integral Part of India. This is to a great extent due to the blunders committed by the Ruling Elite in Delhi. They never trusted the Kashmiri Muslims. Almost all the Indian political parties used Kashmir not only to whip up the emotions of the Indian Hindu voters but also to brow beat Pakistan in regard to Two Nation Theory. After having given up half of their country on the basis of religion they continued to project India as a secular entity simply by virtue of possessing Kashmir, a Muslim majority state in a Hindu majority country. They did succeed for quite sometime to mislead their own people as well as the outside world. However, the unending violence in Kashmir, which has claimed thousands of lives and still continues to do so, has shattered this false image. The people of India have started to question these claims. They are beginning to feel something terribly wrong in Kashmir. Why are Kashmiris unhappy in spite of all the goodies being given to them by the Central Government? After all it is not Pakistan alone, which can be blamed for all the trouble Kashmiris are giving India. Something must be hurting Kashmiris, which has totally alienated them from the rest of the country? Moreover, the cost of retaining Kashmir is beginning to tell upon the over all economic situation in the country. If only Kashmir could be wished away, the billions of rupees being spent on holding it against the wishes of its people could be easily diverted for ameliorating the lot of teeming millions living below the poverty line. Mandir, Trishul and Kashmir have started losing the emotional appeal with the masses in India. It is the “Roti, Kapda aur Makkan”, which is the in thing now. BJP won the MP election because of Roads, Power and Water, which Congress had failed to provide and maintain during its long rule. Even though the people in general have realised the futility of spending billions to keep Kashmir, yet the Ruling Elite is not yet prepared to concede. If only they could be made to stay in Siachin or on Kargil heights during winter even though for a very short period of time, they would realise the stark truth. Spending billions and also losing thousands of young men for the sake of Rocks, Ice and Snow is sheer madness. General in Islamabad is more practical and forthright but people in Delhi seem to be dubious probably due to their unsure footing. It would be better if they leave the decision to the public and solicit their opinion through a referendum. Sooner or later they have to face the reality. Sooner the better not only for their own people as well as the whole sub-continent and South Asia at large but above all for the Kashmiri people who are the main stake holders because of the untold misery and suffering, which they have been facing for ages now!