Kashmir unrest:
India has lost Kashmir forever!
(A Sovereign Kashmir:
Random Thoughts-311)
Dr. Abdul
Ruff Colachal
________
All strenuous efforts by
Indian government and its hard core Hindutva based media to somehow secure
peace in the troubled Kashmir region have not yielded any fruit; not they made
any impact on the world as India is increasingly failing to assure even a symbolically
peaceful situation
Today, Kashmir struggle is
being led by the youth with a vision for sovereignty for their nation from the
neighboring occupiers.
World community is not
impressed by the military terrorism in occupied Jammu Kashmir. World now also
knows that Pakistan fights not for Kashmiris but for their lands to be
incorporated into its own troubled territories. Had Pakistan (and China)
sincerely sought freedom and sovereignty for Kashmir, probably Kashmir would
have been a reality long ago. UNSC plays casually because of the game plan by
Indo-Sino-Pakistani projects in Kashmir.
India is firm that unless
Kashmiris, including the ruling Kashmiri parties like National Conference and
PDP, etc, jointly demand sovereignty back from India, there is no need to take
the struggle seriously and let the military boys deal with those who embarrass
India at UN and other international summits.
India obviously expects
total submission from Muslims either in India or in Kashmir which is claimed by
both India and Pakistan as their integral part and hence the LOC between them
remains a terror spot for both militaries. Kashmiris are the target of their
terror operations like cross fires, etc.
Thus far only the Hurriyat
groups demand freedoms but they also confused the world by their double speaks
about the status of future Jammu Kashmir as they say Kashmir would be a part of
Pakistan. But such statements are treated in India as non-serious utterances.
Perhaps Hurriyat appease Pakistan for its continuous support for Kashmiri cause
and also the fear that Pakistan might not appreciate if they ask for
sovereignty directly to be able to make a soverign home for themselves. In
fact, Pakistan fights for Kashmir lands and wants to make Kashmir a part of
Pakistan after merging it first with Azad Kashmir.
Terror pellets from
military
Only recently struggle for
freedom has become mass based as the youth leads the struggle from the front,
willing to sacrifice their valuable lives for the sake of Kashmir. Although the
PDP led government has not passed any resolution in the state assembly
endorsing the sovereignty struggle in Kashmir leading to unrest situation,
their tacit support for freedom is a foregone conclusion but they are scared
of fall out of that action if they pass a resolution as
New Delhi would remove the government and put the state under governor rule.
However, tacit support is not considered by India as a serous threat to their
military rule in that border state.
The Supreme Court on
October 04 expressed shock at an affidavit filed by Jammu and Kashmir's top
lawyers' body listing the accession of Kashmir to India, “rigged” elections and
the "catch-and-kill" policy of security personnel as “historical
reasons” behind the street violence and protests in the Valley. The court was
hearing the arguments by the J&K High Court Bar Association, which has
filed a PIL petition for a ban on pellet guns.
The court pointed out that
the petition filed by the association dealt with extensive use of pellet guns
by security forces for “crowd control”. However, the affidavit filed by the
lawyers' body accuses the accession of the state, rigging of polls in the state
and the measures taken to subdue protests as “historical reasons”, it said.
In fact, it was Chief
Justice Dipak Misra’s bench that took strong exception to Jammu and Kashmir
high court bar association’s affidavit questioning the state’s accession to
India and said it’s a mistake that the Supreme Court had asked reasons for
protests in Kashmir.
The lawyers of Jammu
Kashmir have come out in support for the struggle for sovereignty and
questioned the rationale of accession of Kashmir to India without the consent
of the people. They have also challenged the state high court’s order refusing
to ban use of pellet guns against the defenseless Kashmiris. Extensive use of
pellets on agitators led to scores of youngsters losing eyesight permanently,
the association has placed before the SC. Association president advocate Abdul
Qayoom said the affidavit was filed “in response to the court’s keenness to
know why the people were protesting”. “Therefore, we pointed out the historical
facts,” the lawyer said.
The Supreme Court
expressed shock at an affidavit filed by Jammu and Kashmir's top lawyers' body
listing the accession of Kashmir to India, “rigged” elections and the
"catch-and-kill" policy of security personnel as “historical reasons”
behind the street violence and protests in the Valley. “If this
court really wanted to know the reasons for stone-pelting and protests, then
it’s a mistake,” Justice Misra said when the association justified the contents
of its affidavit. Justices DY Chandrachud and AM Khanwilkar were the other
members. “We are slightly shocked at the affidavit. How is it
relevant to your appeal here?” the court asked from the association, which has
challenged the state high court’s order refusing to ban use of pellet guns.
The lawyers submitted that
the affidavit was filed after the apex court itself had asked them to give a
background to the continued protests. “We don’t want any adjudication on this
issue. If we had asked you to file an affidavit, then it is a mistake on our
part. It is not relevant for this petition,” Chief Justice Misra responded.
Earlier, on April 28, a
bench headed by then Chief Justice JS Khehar had asked the association to
initiate a roadmap to end violence and bring normalcy in the state. The bar
defended the stand taken after solicitor general Ranjit Kumar objected to the
affidavit’s maintainability. “They have questioned the accession of the J&K
to India. This affidavit has no connection with the issue raised in the
appeal,” he said.
The court did not accept
the association’s request to refer the matter back to the HC in the wake of a
fresh standard operating procedure the Centre has laid down for the use of
pellets. It has fixed January 18 for final hearing.
Indian government,
represented by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, urged the court to dismiss the
association's petition, arguing it was not maintainable. Kumar submitted
that association crossed the boundaries of their petition with their affidavit
which blames the accession of the State to India. “They say every poll since
1947 was rigged and that a catch-and-kill policy is adopted,” Kumar submitted.
The court posted the case for hearing on January 18.
Having assailed Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley over the "mess" in the economy, BJP veteran
leader Yashwant Sinha attacked the government on the Kashmir imbroglio,
insisting "India has lost people of the valley emotionally".
Sense of dismay, despondency
in Jammu Kashmir
Continued militarization
of Kashmir is being criticized world over by India ignores al such
concerns and focuses on fake encounters to kill and
terrorize Kashmiris even India and Pakistan keep firing bullets across
the LOC, keeping Kashmiris in a state of perpetual tension.
India and its core media
lords play havoc with the psyche of the ordinary Indians and
Kashmiris. Though badly shattered by the continued agitations of Kashmiris
against militarization and for sovereignty, India pretends everything is well
in Kashmir as long as an “elected” pro-India – now BJP led -government is in
place in Srinagar.
Criticism of Indian state
terror techniques in Kashmir by Pakistan has its own limitations because it
also has a hidden agenda in Kashmir. The struggle of Kashmiris has no tyet
forced New Delhi to take the call and end the crisis in Kashmir by
amicably agreeing for sovereignty for Jammu Kashmir to let Kashmiris live in
peace and prosperity.
India cannot argue that
there would be regional peace and stability even after the Jammu Kashmir become
a soverign nation once again after several decades of being part of
India, Pakistan and China. USA argues it won’t dismantle the notorious
NATO because there could be more threats to them even
after removing the NATO from the scene. That
is a stupid argument.
That requires true
statesmanship and honesty that is lacking in New Delhi which only is
interested in offering prestigious national awards
to cricketers and other entertainers in appreciation of
their ability to fix matches for 100s and 50s and sue corporate media to
promote their causes.
India doesn’t think
defense forces deserve such top medals more than the mere entertainers who mint
huge money and promote gambling in black money and money laundering through IPL
etc. They exist to mint money and why should government waste the national
awards on them when IPL lords like Vijay Mallya is still without Bharatratna as
his birth right for promoting liquor business and cricket?
Kashmiris alienated
Maybe Indian regime is
seriously thinking about offering his top national award to Mallya as well -who
knows?
Interestingly, hardly nay
high profile Indian has ever supported the legitimate demands of Kashmiris who
want to be independent. Former Finance cum Home minster P. Chidambaram did make
efforts to settle the issue in favor of Kashmir but the Congress government was
unwilling for any such big concessions to Kashmiris. As the root cause of
crisis Kashmir, Congress party, is eager to retain the illegal property called
Jammu Kashmir. As Chidambaram was pushing ahead with talks with Kashmiris, an
impression was crated that very soon there would be regional peace. But the Congress
party and government undid everything. .
Today, another high
profile politician of India the former Union minister Yashwant Sinha of BJP
criticized negative attitude of Indian government against Kashmirism making
them become anti-India and pro-Pakistan. The outspoken leader has also
criticized the Modi government for the sliding Indian economy. PM Modi and
finance minister Jaitley have been assuring the people that Indian economy is
surging after the Modi government took charge. Sinha is being criticized
by the BJP leaders for his criticism of BJP’s economic police. His
criticism of BJP’s directionless economics has left PM Modi and the BJP
embarrassed.
Sinha debunked claims by
several BJP leaders and ministers, including his own son Jayant, Minister of
State for Civil Aviation, that the government has made massive structural
changes which will help the economy in the long run.
Sinha claimed on Sep, 05
2017 Mudra scheme set up to provide funding to non-corporate, non-farm sector
income generating activities of micro and small enterprises, was another name
for the Pradhan Mantri Swarozgar Yojana launched by the Vajpayee government. He
said the average loan in these accounts was a meagre Rs
11,000. "And you tell me, what kind of business can be set up with
Rs 25,000 rupees, Rs 50,000. The party president said that all these 80 million
people today are self-employed which means we have created 80 million job
opportunities. This is absolutely untenable," he said.
India is just for name
sake talks about reforms in Kashmir. Sinha termed as "exaggerated
claims" the success of the various reforms and schemes undertaken by the
government like the Mudra Bank. "I am looking at the alienation
of the masses of people in Jammu and Kashmir. That is something which bothers
me the most… We have lost the people emotionally… You just have to visit the
valley to realize that they have lost faith in us," Sinha said.
Kashmir valley is now a
military apparatus for New Delhi. Sinha leads a civil society organisation —
Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) — which has visited the troubled Valley several
times and interacted with various stakeholders to explore the possibility of
finding a lasting solution to the seven-decades-old problem. The group
comprises eminent people from different walks of life like Justice (retd) AP
Shah, former Mumbai police commissioner JF Ribeira, Wajahat Habibullah, former
RAW chief A S Dulat, Aruna Roy and Ramchandra Guha.
Sinha claimed he has
sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue 10
months ago and was "hurt" as it did not materialize. The
BJP government just follows the Congress path. "I am hurt. I am absolutely
hurt. That you ask for time, 10 months have gone by…Let me tell you, ever since
I have been in public life, no prime minister of India, starting with Rajiv
Gandhi, has ever said no to a meeting I have sought… no prime minister has said
to Yashwant Sinha, ‘I don’t have time for you.’ "And this is my own prime
minister who has treated me like this. So if somebody rings me and says please
come talk to me—sorry, the time has passed… I have been treated shabbily,"
he said.
Sinha also took on finance
minster Jaitley for suggesting that his shifting from the finance to external
affairs ministry when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister was a
"demotion". "How can (Jaitley) say that shifting from the
ministry of finance to external affairs was a demotion for me? … If Jaitley
with the same stroke wants to say that Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs
minister of today, is handling a totally insignificant portfolio, nobody is
going to believe it."PM Modi has taken away the portfolio of Defense from
Jaitley and made Nirmala Sitaraman the new Defence minister.
After a three-day visit of
the strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir, a groups of eminent citizens, led by
ex-minister Yashwant Sinha has concluded that the sense of "dismay and
despondency" had grown among the people and the situation was "much
worse" than their previous visits.
In a release, the
Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) has said that during its visit to the state on
17-19 August, they met with some representatives of prominent political
parties, office-bearers of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, civil society
members from Srinagar, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama, and Kupwara in North
Kashmir. They also met with college students who also spearhead the
agitation. "The most disquieting conclusion of the interactions
this time around was that as compared to the previous visits, the sense of
dismay and despondency in the people had grown", the group said.
They said the proximate
reasons for this not only seemed to be the "lack" of dialogue with
the Kashmiris but also because tourism had plummeted, hotel business was in
dire straits, there was flight of capital and an overall economic downturn
leading to greater unemployment and economic distress.
The CCG had visited the
Valley several times during the unrest last year. "The situation this time
around was much worse than the previous two years", the release said
quoting the third report of the Concerned Citizens Group (CCG).
The group said the
distance between rest of India and the Kashmiri youths seems to have
"increased". This was evident in the fact that even the people who
used to talk reasonably earlier were using "the language of the militants
and separatists this time".
Sinha, a BJP veteran
leader, was the Minister for Finance and External Affairs in the Atal Bihari
Vajpayee government. PM Modi ignored him.
Sinha’s humanistic remarks
on the plight of Kashmiris are timely and the Modi government should be cleaver
enough to take call , talk to the Kashmiri freedom groups- British government
did speak to MK Gandhi among other top freedom leaders , to find a lasting
solution.
India should adopt the
British path of letting the Kashmiris get back their sovereignty. Once India
makes up it mind, Pakistan would have no other option than accepting the
reality of soverign Kashmir. A new era of peace and stability would
dawn in the region.
Earlier the better for both
India and Kashmir as well as the South Asia region!
Occupation and perpetual
crimes as part of colonialism Is not good any decent modern nation today.
Will PM Modi and BJP rise
above petty politicking for Hindu vote banks and take the firm decision of
sovereignty for Kashmir region? .
_____
Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
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