Washington, D.C. March 31, 2016. An impressive peaceful demonstration was held during Nuclear Security Summit in front of the Washington D.C. Convention Center wherein hundreds of participants, who came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington itself were carrying the placards with the message, “ Kashmir: Nuclear flashpoint”; “Time to resolve the Kashmir dispute is now”; “Freedom for all: Freedom for Kashmir”; “Kashmiris demand right of self-determination”; “India: Stop human rights violations in Kashmir.” “Road to Kabul Runs Through Kashmir.”

The participants highlighted that Kashmir was at the brink of a potential nuclear holocaust, and this holocaust was occurring because the root cause of independence and freedom for Kashmir had not been adequately addressed. Kashmir has ignited two wars between the estranged South Asian rivals in 1948 and 1965, and a third could trigger nuclear volleys and a nuclear winter threatening the entire globe. The United States would enjoy no sanctuary. Both India and Pakistan are racing like thoroughbreds to bolster their nuclear arsenals and advanced delivery vehicles. Their defense budgets are climbing despite widespread misery amongst their populations.

Benjamin Franklin, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence from Britain, and a man responsible for negotiating a treaty between the colonies and France, asked, “When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?”

Perhaps the simple answer to that is that it will occur when power is distributed among men in such a way that it cannot be abused by any individual or nation, and that both personal and national sovereignty is once and for all respected.

Benjamin Franklin was a very wise man. He wrote, in respect to the American Revolution, “We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest.”

N.N. Vohra, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and apparent ventriloquist dummy for some folks a little further south, according to Kashmir Today, “observed that it is the duty of all citizens to protect and preserve the unity and integrity of the nation, adding that towards the attainment of such an objective all of us must join hands to negate all divisive and communal forces and promote societal harmony and brotherhood.”

India is of course celebrating its 67th Republic Day to honor its Constitution that became enforceable on January 26 in 1950. But the world’s largest “democracy” had no such democratic intentions for Kashmir. It was just two years earlier that the United Nations Security Council had been adopted, creating the Ceasefire Line, which was to end the war, stave off further conflict between India and Pakistan and pave the way for conditions in which a plebiscite could be held in which the people of Jammu and Kashmir could decide for themselves whether they wished to be an integral part of India, join Pakistan, or be free to chart their own course as an independent state.

Chicago, September 8, 2015. “Tripartite negotiations between Governments of India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership is the only way to resolve the outstanding dispute of Jammu & Kashmir,” said Lord Nazir Ahmed, Member, British House of Lords during the 52nd Annual Convention of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) on the subject of, ‘Kashmir: A Case of Steadfastness.’

Keansburg, New Jersey, October 19, 2015. Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, former prime minister of Azad Kashmir and ‘the Guest of Honor’ said “Kashmir Million-Man-March is being organized on October 25 in New York to pave a way for a just and durable resolution of longstanding Kashmir dispute.” Addressing a huge gathering of friends of Kashmir in Keansburg, New Jersey, he said the world community was concerned about the latest situation in Kashmir which can lead the whole region of South Asia to the nuclear disaster. The world powers including the United States are trying to persuade both India and Pakistan to resume the peaceful negotiation to settle all disputes including the dispute over Kashmir.

Barrister Sultan urged the Pakistani and Kashmiri Americans as well as those who believe in human rights and human dignity to participate in the “Million-Man-March” to make it a great success.

Mohammad Yasin Malik, Chairman, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and ‘the Key-note Speaker’ while speaking via Skype, expressed full support to the ‘Million-Man-March. He thanked the people in the audience for their solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their willingness to help the people of Kashmir to achieve their right to self-determination.

The idea that the dispute over the status of Jammu and Kashmir can be settled only in accordance with the will of the people, which can be ascertained through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite, was the common ground taken by all the three parties to the dispute, viz., the people of Kashmir, Pakistan, and India. It was supported without any dissent by the United Nations Security Council and prominently championed by the United States, Great Britain, France and other democratic states.

It became a matter of controversy only after India realized that she could not win the people’s vote. Due to the cold war, she found a firm ally for her obstructionist position in the Soviet Union. With the end of the cold war, the original perspective should have been recovered.