Author: Jasjit Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 4, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=23243
Introduction: Agency redraws map,
sends political signals: Region east of LoC is 'Indian state' now , in
the past it was not
The new map of Jammu and Kashmir
recently released by the CIA significantly describes the region east of
the Line of Control as ''Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir'' while it designates
the territories to its west as ''Pakistan-controlled areas of Kashmir.''
In the past, the US treated the whole state as disputed.
There are other notable changes
from the past which would no doubt make many people wonder at the political
signals implicit in the map. The importance of this issue lies in the fact
that the current map would have undergone rigorous inter- agency examination
in the US system, and after approval at the highest levels, now depicts
the official government position in the map which would be used by everyone
in official and unofficial circles in the United States and its allies.
Maps often convey more than mere
details of places and the geographical features depicted. For example,
it was the US Air Force Aeronautical Charts of the early 1960s that drew
a straight line joining Point NJ9842 with the Karakoram Pass to the east.
Point NJ9842, it may be recalled, marks the last point of the mutually
agreed Line of Control between Pakistan and India according to the bilateral
1972 Simla Agreement. This line, which depicted the Air Defence Information
Zone, was not meant to indicate a boundary and could not be interpreted
as such. But unfortunately, India paid no attention and within years many
of the reputed world atlases started to mark the straight line as the eastern
boundary of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
The authoritative Times Atlas, which
till at least 1967 had shown a notional extension of the Cease-Fire Line
beyond NJ9842 as going northward (in tune with the 1949 Karachi Agreement
between India and Pakistan). But its post- 1971 editions, like many other,
started to indicate the Air Defence Information Zone line as the eastern
boundary of POK.
In due course, Pakistan started
to claim this line as the boundary and even cited international atlases
in evidence. This is how the Siachen dispute was born, although in reality
the line runs along the Saltoro Ridge and should have been called by that
name.
The current US Government map (available
on CIA's website) no longer indicates the Siachen region as part of POK,
and in fact marks it as ''Indian Occupied since 1984'' shifting the POK's
limits west of the Saltoro Ridge. We had practically reached an agreement
with Pakistan by the early 1990s to accept the Saltoro Ridge as the ''Actual
Ground Position Line,'' but it was not implemented.
The CIA, therefore, has corrected
an old wrong. While it may not go all the way to meet the Indian position,
the acceptance of the fact that the area east of the LOC is an Indian state
significantly implies that Indian sovereignty over this part of J&K
is not disputed by Washington. This, incidentally, was the initial position
taken by US Secretary of State George Marshall when India took the issue
to the UN, till the British canvassing changed it by 1949. Interestingly,
this was also the core of the August 13, 1948 UN resolution.
The ''dispute,'' thus is really
about the ''Pakistan-controlled'' areas. Overall, the official US map now
depicts the factual position about a grossly misunderstood reality. This
is also consistent with the US official insistence since the Kargil War
to maintain the ''sanctity'' of the Line of Control in J&K since it
separates two regions of J&K state with distinctly different status.
It would be reasonable to expect that US diplomacy including pressures
on Pakistan to permanently end terrorism, and seeking both countries to
lower tensions, would be framed on the realities depicted in the official
maps.
(Air Commodore (Retd) Jasjit Singh
is the Editorial Advisor (Defence and Strategic Affairs) to this newspaper)
