The Congress-led UPA coalition, anxious not to rock the boat with Pakistan despite the mutilation of the bodies of two jawans and beheading of one in the Mendhar sector on January 6, has still not asked Islamabad to rectify depiction of Manavadar and Junagadh towns as “disputed” in its physical maps.
This political negligence of the highest order is inexcusable. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wrote to the Prime Minister in this regard more than six months ago. Modi did not make this an issue in the recent high decibel election campaign which he won handsomely, though political circumstances forced him to mention Sir Creek in order to avert an unfavourable deal.
Political observers are unnerved over the UPA’s policy of ‘masterly inaction’ in the face of issues that seriously impact the nation’s dignity, territorial integrity and sovereignty. On January 30, it was reported that Beijing is planning to build three more hydropower dams on the Brahmaputra. Despite growing anxiety over an imminent water crisis in eastern India (and even Bangladesh), the Ministry of External Affairs merely stated that it “was keeping a close watch” on the situation. The foreign office admitted that China has so far not officially informed India about its plans for more reservoirs.
The Gujarat Chief Minister informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the issue of Pakistan government publications showing Junagadh and Manavadar towns as disputed Pakistani territories was too serious to be ignored by India. As far back as June 2012, Modi had urged that forceful resistance to such misleading presentation should be registered with Pakistan government and taken up at the secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan.
“Gujarat being a border state,” Modi had warned, “it is very sensitive to any misadventures of Pakistan and I have come across some publications of government of Pakistan, wherein, based on the intentions of the then nawabs (rulers) of these two territories, Pakistan is still showing them as disputed. Hence, the matter seems to be very important and needs to be condemned and sorted out at the earliest”.
In the corridors of power in the Capital, however, there is no sign that the authorities are perturbed over the issue and have initiated corrective measures. New Delhi does not seem to regard the international frontier as inviolable, and as recently as December 2012, was on the verge of concluding a deal demarcating the maritime boundary at Sir Creek in the Rann of Kutch, which would give tremendous advantage to Pakistan in the Exclusive Economic Zone. This covert deal, which professional peaceniks had peddled as ‘doable’, was effectively scuttled when Narendra Modi made his letter to the Prime Minister public during last year’s state election campaign, because of the impending visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Rahman Malik (he arrived on December 14, 2012).
Junagadh was a landlocked former princely State whose Muslim ruler first said he would accede to India, but later, under the influence of the new dewan, Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto (father of late Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), suddenly opted for Pakistan. This was despite the lack of geographical contiguity with Pakistan and the fact that the Hindu majority wanted to join India.
This decision enraged the neighbouring princely states in Kathiawar as several enclaves of their territories lay within the main Junagadh boundary, and all princely states together formed a compact geographic and socio-economic unit. These princely states had already acceded to India; they and the inhabitants of Junagadh appealed to the Government of India to step in.
Junagadh had three principalities – Manavadar, Mangrol and Babriawad. The latter two broke away from the Nawab and acceded to India. India then sent an infantry brigade to protect Mangrol, even as the people of Junagadh rose against the Nawab and created a provisional government which repudiated the accession to Pakistan and was helped by the Indian Army to accede to India. Nawab Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III fled to Karachi and Sardar Patel ordered the annexation of Junagadh along with its three principalities. Junagadh joined India on 9 November 1947. In December a plebiscite was conducted and an overwhelming 99 per cent of the people voted for India.
Manavadar was one of the principalities of Junagadh. In August 1947, its ruler, Nawab Ghulam Moinuddin Khanji, acceded to Pakistan along with his cousin, the Nawab of Junagadh. This was resented by the Hindu population which revolved and he fled to Karachi with his family. Indian police entered the State ten days later, an administrator was appointed and a referendum organised. Thereafter, it too joined India. Pakistan, however, officially continued to recognise the old ruler until his death in 2003.
Now, possibly to exacerbate sentiments over Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has started showing Manavadar and Junagadh in its physical maps, though not in its administrative maps. If New Delhi fails to lodge an official protest and seek rectification of the maps, it is only a matter of time before third nations like China begin to show Junagadh and Manavadar as Pakistani enclaves within the territorial boundaries of India.
It is pertinent that Junagadh has an opening to the Arabian Sea, and the erstwhile Nawab had justified his accession saying that the state was contiguous to Pakistan ‘by sea’. In November 2008, Pakistani terrorists took the sea route from Karachi to enter Mumbai and wreak havoc on the city and its hapless denizens.
NitiCentral.com, 2 February 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/pakistan-finds-more-disputes-to-fight-over.html