Finance Minister sought to remind Parliament that it was the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who internationalized the Kashmir issue by taking it to the United Nations.

Kashmir at UN

• The United Nations has played an advisory role in maintaining peace and order in the Kashmir region soon after the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.
• India took this matter to the UN Security Council, which passed resolution 39 (1948) and established the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate the issues and mediate between the two countries.
• Following the cease-fire of hostilities, it also established the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the cease-fire line.

Why did Nehru agree to these terms?

• In December 1947, because the British perhaps suggested Nehru that this matter will not be resolved unless you take it to the UN.
• British were convinced that an intermediary was needed.
• Nehru, a loyalist to the British agreed upon the terms laid by Mountbatten.
• It was Nehru who first put forth the idea of a referendum under the aegis of UN soon after independence.
• There is evidence to believe Sardar Patel was uncomfortable with Nehru taking the matter to the UN, and thought it was a mistake.

Issue: Adventurism by Pakistan

• The discussions in the Security Council on our complaint of aggression by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir took a very unfavourable turn.
• Pakistan then succeeded, with the support of the British and American members creating a western bias against India.
• Pakistan is misusing this till date paving wave for third-party intervention.
• It is an issue which should not have gone to a global forum, it is essentially an Indian issue.

Article 35 of UN Charter

• There has been some debate on whether India chose the wrong path to approach the UN.
• In 2019, Home Minister said that had Nehru taken the matter to the UN under Article 51 of the UN Charter, instead of Article 35, the outcome could have been different.
• India pointed out that J&K had acceded to India, and that the “Government of India considered the giving of this assistance by Pakistan to be an act of aggression against India.
• Articles 33-38 of the UN Charter occur in Chapter 6, titled “Pacific (peaceful) Settlement of Disputes” :

These Articles lay out that:

1. the parties to a dispute that has the potential for endangering international peace and security are not able to resolve the matter through negotiations between them, or by any other peaceful means, or with the help of a “regional agency”
2. the Security Council may step in, with or without the invitation of one or another of the involved parties, and recommend “appropriate procedures or methods of recommendation”
3. Article 35 only says that any member of the UN may take a dispute to the Security Council or General Assembly
4. Article 51, which occurs in Chapter 7, titled “Action With Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression”
5. It says that a UN member has the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if attacked

Issues with the internationalization of Kashmir

• Kashmir issue no longer remains bilateral; it has thus been internationalized.
• However, India has been successful in perhaps internationalizing terrorism but not the Kashmir problem.
• But unwarranted statements against India’s sovereign concerns are increasing these days.

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