Softening the Line of Control

Three alternative routes are better than the road between Srinagar and Muzafarrabad which New Delhi has offered to open.

The opening the Srinagar-Muzafarrabad road network is one of the confidence building measures (CBM´s) offered by the Indian government to Pakistan on 22 October. This has been projected by analysts and the media as a giant step towards solving the problems of millions on either side of the Line of Control (LoC). However, these gushing and effusive commentators, perhaps keen to highlight the magnanimity of the centre's Kashmir policy, have not paused to consider the ground realities before rushing to the conclusion that some act of humanitarianism has been performed.

The idea of 'softening' the border between India and Pakistan along the state of Jammu and Kashmir is not a new one. It is an old idea that is being revived in a new context. The case for it is based mainly on humanitarian grounds, which are supposed to be above political considerations. The primary argument is that it will help families, currently divided, to reunite. These divided families are a permanent peculiarity of the illogical division of a society between two countries based on no particular principle other than the fact that the line of separation represented the respective militaries' state of control as on a particular day. When the state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two halves between India and Pakistan on 1 January 1949 and the ceasefire line announced, families were divided, by a line, based on the territory held. In short, the separation was on a completely random basis. Since then, various proposals have surfaced from different quarters to open up the Jammu and Kashmir border.