India-Pak reunification only solution to Kashmir issue: Katju

A reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong ''modern-minded'' government is the only solution to the Kashmir issue, Press Council of India chairperson Justice Markandey Katju said today.

He said the problems that Pakistan as also India currently face is due to the illogical division of a nation based on the two-nation theory propounded by a divisive British administration.

''Now the time has come for India and Pakistan to re-unite to solve the Kashmir issue…There is no solution except the unification of the two countries,'' Katju said while addressing a seminar on `Reporting conflict zones', organised by the India Chapter of South Asia Media Commission.

He said the British administration actively encouraged a two-nation theory ever since the first war of independence in 1857, so as to create a rift between Hindus and Muslims.

"The cause of the Kashmir problem is the partition of India on a totally bogus basis - the two-nation theory, that Hindus and Muslims are separate nations....I don't recognise Pakistan as a legitimate country because the whole basis is the two nation theory and I don't accept the two nation theory," he said.

"Therefore the one and only solution to the Kashmir problem or the militancy problem in Pakistan is the reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong, central, secular, modern-minded government which just doesn't tolerate bigotry," he said.