North Ireland type solution for Kashmir

This is the season of proposing solutions to the Kashmir Problem. There was a solution to adjust the LoC so that India would give some land to Pakistan. Then there was the Andorra proposal. Now a Congress leader Salman Khurshid has suggested looking at the Northern Ireland model for solving this problem.

Pointing out to the emergence of the European Union, which obliterated the issue of territorial boundary in Northern Ireland, Khurshid said: “If that (emergence of a Union) happens here, then the intensity of the conflict will also go away,” he said. Referring to the resolution of the diplomatic and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland through a referendum that led to the formation of a Northern Irish parliament, Khurshid suggested a serious study of the Irish peace model in South Asia. “The Irish model is very complicated and deep rooted like (the problem) that we share with Pakistan,” he said.[Khurshid suggests Irish peace model for India, Pak]

Sumantra Bose has a discussion of the North Ireland type solution for Kashmir in his book Kashmir : Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace. But that requires a giant leap of faith and trust between the two nations which is currently lacking.