The last two years have been difficult for residents of India’s eastern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu State. Monsoon rains have failed for two years and the city has braved a heat wave compounded by water scarcity.

On 19 June 2019, the state government announced that Day Zero—or the day when the city reservoirs were empty—had been reached. Local officials then announced that they would transport 10 million litres of water daily by train from 200 kilometres away to provide enough water, especially for the poor, to survive.

Chennai’s water stress is not unique to the city. From Cape Town, South Africa to Iran’s port city of Khorramshahr, individuals and communities in numerous countries worldwide have in recent years been suffering from water shortages.

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Mirror To Mirror with Former BBC Correspondent Krishan Tyagi

Pakistan never recognised that Jammu & Kashmir enjoyed a special status in the Union of India through Article 370 and Article 35A in the Constitution of India. Pak government, establishment and media call the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir “Maqbooza Kashmir” (Occupied Kashmir) using the formal phrase “Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK)”. But the moment the Modi government decided to abandon those provisions, Pakistan decided it is a violation of some agreement with Pakistan! Pakistani establishment claimed the Article 370 could not be removed unilaterally by India.

As the Indian parliament passed the resolutions to abrogate Article 370 (and Article 35A as a consequence) and reorganised the region into two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladhakh, Pakistan reacted sharply. Pakistan’s national assembly in a joint session condemned India for unilaterally changing the status of Jammu & Kashmir. Pakistan downgraded the diplomatic relations with India by sending the Indian envoy back home; the trade with India has been completely stopped; the train and bus services between the two countries have been stopped; Pakistani air space has again been restricted for Indian planes; and most importantly, Pakistan is taking the matter to the United Nations Security Council and International Court of Justice, if possible. Prime Minister Imran Khan has phoned world leaders and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has visited Beijing seeking China’s support at the UNSC in order to make India withdraw its measure in relation to Jammu and Kashmir.

There has not been much of a reaction from the Indian government to the unilateral measures taken by the Pak government. The only response from the Indian government that we saw during the week was that the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar asked Pakistan to review its decision to downgrade the ties with India.

However, the Indian media as well as Pak media have been taking great interest in the developments in Pakistan in the field. The Indian media in general dismissed the Imran Khan government’s attempts to garner international support against India as desperate and fruitless efforts. For instance, Palki Sharma Upadhyay at WION News, India’s global news channel, wished Pakistan “Good Luck” in its efforts. On the other hand, as expected Pak media has been very supportive of their government.

Different television channels have joined their government in severely criticising the present Indian government’s measure to absorb “disputed Jammu and Kashmir” into India; condemned “Indian atrocities on Kashmiri people”; and used abusive words for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

On the Pakistani television news channel 24 News,one of the senior most Pak journalists, Najam Sethi who also believed that India has acted inappropriately, presented a very realistic assessment of the options available to the Pakistan establishment in its opposition to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution in relation to Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Sethi reported that there was no positive response from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the US or China to PM Khan’s phone calls and FM Qureshi’s visit to Beijing. These countries at present have very strong trade and investment relations with India, and it is not in their national interest to annoy India. China particularly at this moment is not very happy with Pakistan. Turkey is the only country that has supported Pakistan on the issue. Basically, Pakistan doesn’t have much of international support.

Najam Sethi also talked of the UN Resolutions on Kashmir proposing a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. Generally the people in Pakistan think the plebiscite was supposed to take place in the Indian region of Jammu & Kashmir only. Because the plebiscite did not take place, Pakistan calls Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir, as mentioned, “Indian Occupied Kashmir” and the area under its own control “Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir)”. Mr Sethi informed the 24 News viewers that according to the concerned UN Resolutions, the plebiscite was to be held in the whole of Jammu & Kashmir, INCLUDING THE KASHMIR UNDER PAKISTANI CONTROL.

However, as mentioned in the review, even Mr Sethi, a very mature journalist, omitted the extremely important detail of the UNSC Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, wherein the proposal to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir was made. The Resolution had recommended a three-step processfor the resolution of the dispute between India and Pakistan. In the first step, Pakistan was asked to withdraw all its nationals from Kashmir. In the second step, India was asked to progressively reduce its forces to the minimum level required for law and order. In the third step, India was asked to appoint a plebiscite administrator nominated by the United Nations who would conduct a free and impartial plebiscite. These steps were sequential, meaning the second step was to be taken up on the completion of the first one, and the third step was to be taken up on the completion of the second one. Mr Sethi kept quiet on the fact that the plebiscite did not take place because Pakistan did not fulfil the first condition. It never withdrew its nationals from Kashmir. So, the reality of the UN Resolutions on Kashmir is that they could not be acted upon because Pakistan did not keep its part. The responsibility for the non-implementation of the UN Resolutions lies with Pakistan.

Even more importantly, the fact is that the present state of Pakistan is not the state of Pakistan that was a party against the state of India in the UN Resolutions relating to Kashmir in 1948-1949. THAT STATE OF PAKISTAN NO LONGER EXISTS. More than half of the population of that State of Pakistan transformed itself into another State called Bangladesh in 1971. So, a smaller part of that State cannot claim itself to be the inheritor of the erstwhile State of Pakistan, the party to the dispute with India, even if it calls itself Pakistan. In that Resolution, present day Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan, was a joint claimant as a part of Pakistan. The present day Pakistan can only pursue that claim if Bangladesh joins it in pursuing that claim.

So, all the UN Resolutions relating to Jammu and Kashmir, where the State of India and the then State of Pakistan were the parties to the dispute, are null & void after the transformation of East Pakistan into Bangladesh.

But, no one including Indian political leaders and Indian media has ever told Pakistan.

Courtesy mirrortomirror.com

Some rarely used English terms

1. The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.
2. The way it smells after the rain is called petrichor.
3. The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.
4. The rumbling of stomach is actually called a wamble.
5. The cry of a new born baby is called a vagitus.
6. The prongs on a fork are called tines.
7. The sheen or light that you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on them is called phosphenes.
8. The tiny plastic table placed in the middle of a pizza box is called a box tent.
9. The day after tomorrow is called
overmorrow.
10. Your tiny toe or finger is called minimus.
11. The wired cage that holds the cork in a bottle of champagne is called an agraffe.
12. The ‘na na na’ and ‘la la la’, which don’t really have any meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.
13. When you combine an exclamation mark with a question mark (like this ?!), it is referred
to as an interrobang.
14. The space between your nostrils is called columella nasi.
15. The armhole in clothes, where the sleeves are sewn, is called armscye.
16. The condition of finding it difficult to get out of the bed in the morning is called dysania.
17. Unreadable hand -writing is called griffonage.
18. The dot over an “i” or a “j” is called tittle.
19. That utterly sick feeling you get after eating or drinking too much is called crapulence.
20. The metallic device used to measure your
feet at the shoe store is called Bannock device.

You prided yourself in your command over English language, didn’t you? . Eat your humble pie and share this, von’t you?

A deeply engrossing blog on Plitvice Lakes, by an irrepressible and ardent adventurer.

https://www.kavity.in/2019/04/plitvice-lakes-croatias-most-fantastical-national-park/

Thought is the brain of the cells and units of Life Force present in every particle of bodily tissue. Hence, a disease thought upsets the entire government of the Life Force in the cells, whereas the thought of health corrects any disorder in the cellular system.

It must be remembered that I am speaking of the concentrated Divine Thought which can heal and not of the fanciful thought of imaginary people. In order to move Divine Thought, the ordinary man must know the relation of thought, Life Force, and body without denying the existence of the body thought. The body is the frozen thought and frozen energy of God. Nevertheless, man cannot realize this until he knows that thought is frozen into energy and energy is frozen into the body of man

– Paramhansa Yogananda

https://youtu.be/HJ1UH6U4l9k

A wise man works modestly toward the hereafter while a foolish man follows his low desires yet expects blessings from Allah.

– Hadith The Prophet Muhammad

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