So, your disgruntled view is only against this Author ? Or anyone else who does not align with your views on why Kashmir should not be United with India ? Because, what i read from the West, are all news going gung-ho about India's current role in the global world, and likewise panning Pakistan on all fronts as to how a nuisance it has become in its role as a forerunner of Terrorism.
My disgruntled view? A more appropriate characterization would be my disgust at the ill-informed, biased nonsense of a two-bit hack of a journo.
What you read "from the west" puts China at #1 and if that's the case, you have no cause much to celebrate. You can try to befriend China, but they are not idiots. As you have seen recently with them directing numerous insults at you, they are more than willing to take you on, whether by laying claims to territory, projecting power in the Indian ocean, putting you down diplomatically by refusing to stamp Indian passports for Kashmir residents or rejecting your top Kashmir-based general's visa application. They know that a fundamental truism in history has been that two global powers cannot share borders. And they have no intention of letting you be more than a regional power...
As for terrorism, look, money talks and bull$hit walks. For all the bull$hit, the entire western world is collaborating with Pakistan. You can keep harping on terror factory and other out-of-date bollywood tunes, but they mean $hit when the entire world is ACTING in a way that confirms Pakistan as friend, helper and ally. Once again, forget how lips move and watch how hips move. The wests hips are moving in pleasing ways viz Pakistan.
And yes, India's economic indicators have improved only in the last 8 years over Pakistan ; But its social indicators have been fairly better than Pakistan over the last 60 years whether be Adult Literacy, Enrollment ratio or even Access to Health is concerned.
You forget that Pakistan has outdone India in numerous development indicators despite the fact that India robbed Pakistan of its fair share of resources at the time of partition (extensive documentation by British officers and I have shared references on this very forum in the past; you can search and satisfy your curiosity. This is an undisputed fact).
As for access to health and literacy, much of the infrastructure including almost all the universities were in India at the time of partition. So there's no surprise that in the early years India fared better in these areas. The rate at which the literacy gap has been closing though is quite remarkable. To give you an example, female literacy numbers in India and Pakistan are both at roughly 64% today. If you read your press and its characterizations of Pakistan, you would think that women in our country are not getting an opportunity to study or learn. As with much else that is written about Pakistan in the Indian press, this too would be nonsense and crap.
