Reply to Nehru and Menon Statement at Lahore, July 14, 1963

In the ordinary course of events, whilst the President of Pakistan is in Washington, it would not seem altogether appropriate to enter into a dialogue with Indian leaders on the merits and morality of Kashmir, that great divider between India and Pakistan. However, notwithstanding our restraint, our desire to maintain decorum and equanimity in this hour of crisis, the Defence Minister of India and his Prime Minister have made disparaging and deleterious remarks about Pakistan and thereby hit at the roots of our relations.

One need not repeat ad nauseam the generous efforts made by Pakistan to seek a just and equitable solution of this grave issue. Indeed, it was the Pakistan Government which took the initiative to normalize relations by seeking to bring about a meeting of the minds at the highest level and this was done despite the vituperative provocation that flowed from India when, without justification, vile and slanderous attacks were made on the change of regime in this country.

Notwithstanding such crude and diabolical interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan, the President extended the hand of friendship and goodwill to India on the condition that the issue of Kashmir be settled according to the principles of international justice and equity.

Let it be known beyond all doubt that Kashmir is to Pakistan what Berlin is to the West, and that without a fair and proper settlement of this issue the people of Pakistan will not consider the crusade for Pakistan as complete. There can be no two questions about Kashmir being an issue which threatens the peace and security of the world. Kashmir is an issue which hangs heavily on the conscience of mankind.

No verbal denial or the afflux of time can detract from the cardinal premise that Kashmir is an international dispute, the solution of which is imperative to world peace and good order: that it is a grim reminder of broken promises, of political expediencies and of international hypocrisy and duplicity, as reflected by the stand of Gandhi’s India.

Is it not a tragedy that such a great country, representing a mammoth mass of humanity, should forget its solemn obligations and violate all the known principles followed by civilized nations? The Defence Minister of India has threatened Pakistan with war. I would like to assure him that the people of Pakistan are not frightened by sabre-rattling.

However, to use so grave an issue, one on which peace hangs in the balance, for an election campaign is the epitome of recklessness and irresponsibility.

But what is more unfortunate is that in the space of a few days the Prime Minister of India has again displayed his obduracy on Kashmir and this time ironically enough in Jabalpur, that riot-torn region where the blood of innocents gushed for the crime that they were Muslims.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is reported to have said, “The cause of the riots is the social backwardness of India, but that if socially any country is more backward than India it is Pakistan.”

Pandit Nehru regards Pakistan as socially more backward than India. Who dare challenge the dictum of the Prime Minister of India? A growing and insatiable appetite, capable of devouring a Junagadh, a Hyderabad, and a Kashmir, with ambition to establish hegemony over other peoples is India’s clear criterion of social and political progress. Under such a system of values and judgment Pakistan can be dubbed socially backward. But it is not in Pakistan that communal riots take place almost by the day or where citizenship exists on the basis of debased and unclean ranks, each superior grade considering the inferior as polluting the higher class, and it is not in Pakistan that rituals and customs on eating, burial and companionship are so effete as to be unbelievable.

It is a matter of history, indeed of incontrovertible evidence, that when American military aid was given to Pakistan, a tirade was conducted in India to oppose it and actually this very factor was used as a pretext to resile from the solemn pledge given by India, in the United Nations, to settle the Kashmir issue.

If military assistance to Pakistan was considered so fundamental a problem as to invoke the expedient doctrine, is it not then logical to expect a similar, if not greater, aversion in Pakistan if mightier India is likely to be armed in a manner that may cause total disequilibrium in the arms balance in the subcontinent?

I would like to make it clear beyond all doubt that the people of this country will not forsake a righteous cause merely because more bayonets and bullets may be supplied to India from any source to consolidate her usurpation of Kashmir. Such issues which strike at the core of honor and dignity of a people are not solved by the threat of or use of force, but by the dauntless spirit and fortitude of a people.

It has always been my conviction that the problem of Kashmir can be settled under the umbrella of justice for the good of the people of the subcontinent and the progress of India and Pakistan. On our part we still maintain that belief steadfastly. It only requires a little bit of goodwill, a little bit of understanding and some magnanimity to be able to do it. How can deception and fraud replace truth and virtue? Often, and, in the long march of history many have tried but none have succeeded and none can succeed as long as there is a grain of honor in humanity and goodwill in the world, as long as there are individuals willing to work for the promotion of peace and for the happiness of mankind.

For this very reason, despite the multiplicity of our pains and passions, we will not allow a blind fate to lead us to mutual doom. On our part we will not take up the sword. But if man and civilization must turn to ashes due to the intransigence and bigotry of a few, a more honorable and glorious end cannot be found than to defend the right cause in the protection of the oppressed and in the vindication of honor.