Fatalities of Shimla Agreement Faced by India

What is the issue?

• Shimla agreement signed was signed between India-Pakistan to maintaining peace.
• The Shimla Agreement did not fully achieve any of India’s objectives.

What is Shimla agreement about?

• The Shimla Agreement signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan on 2nd July 1972.
• It seek to reverse the consequences of the 1971 war i.e. to bring about withdrawals of troops and an exchange of PoWs (Prisoner of Wars).
• It was a comprehensive blue print for good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan.
• Under the Shimla Agreement both countries undertook to abjure conflict and confrontation which had marred relations in the past, and to work towards the establishment of durable peace, friendship and cooperation.

What were the guiding principles of the agreement?

• The Shimla Agreement contains a set of guiding principles, mutually agreed to by India and Pakistan, which both sides would adhere to while managing relations with each other.
• Few important provisions of the guiding principles are as follows

1. A mutual commitment to the peaceful resolution of all issues through direct bilateral approaches.
2. To build the foundations of a cooperative relationship with special focus on people to people contacts.
3. To uphold the inviolability of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, was created as a key to durable peace.

What is India’s response on the agreement?

• India has faithfully observed the Shimla Agreement in the conduct of its relations with Pakistan.
• India wanted to have a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue or, failing that, an agreement that would constrain Pakistan from involving third parties in discussions about the future of Kashmir.
• India hoped that the Shimla Agreement would allow for a new beginning in relations with Pakistan based upon Pakistan’s acceptance of the new balance of power.
• India als0 left open the possibility of achieving both these objectives without pushing Pakistan to the wall and creating a revanchist anti-India regime.

What was Pakistan’s response to the Shimla agreement?

• A humiliated Pakistan inevitably turn to the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by the partition and successive wars.
• India did not forced Pakistan to convert the ceasefire line in Kashmir into the international boundary when Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ruled out this option.
• Pakistan accepted the term Line of Control (LoC) instead, thus delinking it from UN resolutions and highlighting that Kashmir was a purely bilateral affair.

What are the fatalities faced by India in this regard?

• After the agreement India was inclined to return the POWs but was constrained from doing so.
• This is because they had surrendered to the joint India-Bangladesh command and could not be returned without the latter’s concurrence.
• Dhaka made it clear that it would not return the POWs until Islamabad recognised Bangladesh, thus delaying the POWs’ return until 1974.
• In 1977 Pakistan army took over the political administration, despite its soft line on Kashmir and the POWs, India was unable to prevent the military from taking power.
• Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear capability created a situation of deterrence negating India’s superiority in conventional power and instated de facto military parity between the two countries.  
• Deterrence also provided the shield for the Pakistani military to take Kargil war into Indian Kashmir through its proxies, the terrorist groups created and supported by the ISI.

Source: The Hindu