Kashmir: A Test Case for Humanity at Large
By Abdul Jabbar Memon
Consul General of Pakistan
Los Angeles
The present situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir, where millions of people have been living under curfew for more than a month now and women are being raped and protestors killed at will by the Indian Security Forces, is not only testing the patience and endurance of the Kashmiris but, at a different level, also testing the conscience of the international community. How it eventually responds to these abuses will determine if global efforts to implement international law by holding the states responsible for human rights abuses get a boost or a setback.
Kashmir presents an unprecedented case in today’s world given the magnitude of atrocities committed by a state against civilian population for demanding its right of self- determination promised by none other than the United Nations. With over 12 million Kashmiris under ruthless control of over one million Indian security personnel, Indian-occupied Kashmir has presented the picture of a military garrison for many decades.
History of Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India is over seven decades old. Presently, under international law and as per United Nations resolutions, Kashmir is a disputed territory. There are various UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir which were accepted by both Pakistan and India, and which called for a plebiscite under UN supervision. Later on, India reneged on its promise to hold the plebiscite. Since then, India has used all sorts of tactics to suppress the desire of independence of the Kashmiris, however, they have not given up. They continue to yearn for their rights and press for the implementation of UN resolutions.
While the history of Indian State brutality against Kashmiris is very old, it got a new impetus after the BJP under Prime Minister Modi assumed power in India in 2014. BJP’s present Government, which is unabashedly open about its fascist and racist agenda of realizing its goal of Hindu India known as ‘Hindustan,’ got further emboldened after its recent reelection victory a couple of months ago.
According to Professor David Myers of UCLA, ‘Muslims constitute nearly 70% of the population of the state and therefore, represent a constant irritant and threat to the Hindu nationalists of Modi’s BJP, who aspire to achieve ethnic purity in India. Now that Modi has consolidated power with a landslide election in 2019, he is moving rapidly and boldly toward realizing the BJP vision of a Hindu India - one that bears little relation to the vision laid out in India’s Constitution, which guarantees justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to all’.
Since August 5, 2019, the scale and impunity of the Indian Government’s draconian steps has increased manifold, resulting in egregious violations of the fundamental rights and freedom of the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Although the United Nations has maintained for decades that the political status of Kashmir has to be determined by the Kashmiri people, however, India recently further disregarded UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir; abrogated Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, thereby ending the State’s Special Status in the Indian Constitution. Article 370, a constitutional provision, granted Kashmir a semi-autonomous status and prevented non-Kashmiris from owning property in Kashmir. All independent observers believe that this step has been taken to change the ethnic demography of Kashmir and eventually eradicate Kashmir’s identity and political will.
As the Jammu & Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India has been on the agenda of the UN Security Council since January 1948, and remains an internationally recognized dispute, as affirmed by 11 UN Security Council Resolutions, India’s illegal actions of 5 August 2019, seeking to unilaterally alter the internationally recognized status of occupied Jammu & Kashmir and to change its demographic structure, contravene several UNSC binding resolutions, including resolution 47 (1948), 51(1948), 80(1950) and 91(1951) which embodied the principle that “the final disposition of the state of Jammu & Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations”. By its resolution 91(1951), 122 (1957) and 123(1957), the Security Council reaffirmed that any unilateral attempt by “the parties concerned” to “determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir or any part thereof would not constitute a disposition of the state in accordance with the above principle” (of a plebiscite). The Security Council consultations of 16 August 2019 reaffirmed the disputed nature of Jammu and Kashmir and the Council’s role in the dispute. The convening of these consultations directly repudiated the Indian position that the actions were an “internal affair”. They also rejected unequivocally the unilateral Indian attempt to side-step the Council Resolutions. Earlier, the UN Secretary General in a statement on 8 August, 2019 had clearly stated that the UN’s position on this region (IOJ&K) was governed by the UN Charter and the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.
Ironically, the Indian hypocrisy is evident in its conflicting comments. On the one hand it says that IOJ&K is an internal matter of India, and on the other, it states that it would discuss it bilaterally with Pakistan. Previously, it used to say that the Jammu & Kashmir dispute is a multilateral issue. There is no consistency or principle involved in the Indian position. India has been using the phrases internal, bilateral and multilateral as and when and where they suit and serve its interests. Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir has remained, firm and consistent on all bilateral, regional and multilateral forums and clearly spells out that Kashmir is a disputed territory and its fate has to be determined according to the aspirations of the people of Kashmir by exercising the right of self-determination under an impartial plebiscite, as enshrined in several UN Resolutions.
As the aim of the present changes in Indian Occupied Kashmir’s relationship with the Indian Federation is meant to change the demography of the region; it is a clear violation of international law as Kashmir under international law is not a part of India. Pakistan believes that the ideology of Hindutva is a threat to world peace, and it is very unfortunate that such a racist ideology has become the mainstream narrative in India. Just as the world fought fascism and communism in the 20th Century, there is a very strong likelihood that in the 21st Century we will be confronting Hindutva fascism in which there is no place for religious minorities.
The recent steps of PM Modi-led Government have helped dispel people’s confusion about Mr Modi and have shown his real face to the world. It is the same Mr Modi who as Chief Minister of Gujrat State in India not only turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim riots in his state but was complicit in the heinous crime.
While taking recent steps in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Mr Modi had probably calculated that he would fool the world as he had done before and given the world’s economic and trade interests tied to Indian economy, the world would continue to ignore Indian human rights violations. But, this time, the world has refused to buy his story. Public outrage the world over about the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir has exposed the hollowness of the Indian argument. It has also shown to the world that beneath the facade of the largest democracy of the world, is the largest hypocrisy of the world, a state, which is ready to go to any extent to suppress the wishes of the people living under its occupation.
During the last month and a half, I have met many Congressmen and people from civil society in the United States, who have expressed their concern for the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir. They have told me that they have met Kashmiri diaspora living in the United States who have told them that their loved ones are in harm’s way in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Extensive coverage of the human rights abuses in Indian Occupied Kashmir in US newspapers in recent days, has helped the US public to become aware of the human tragedy unfolding in the Kashmir region. It has helped many become aware of the Kashmir dispute, which continues to be a nuclear flashpoint between Pakistan and India.
While Pakistan has, and will, continue to provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris in their struggle for exercising their right of self- determination, it is important that the world community and civil society around the world, also pressure the Indian Government to stop genocide and human rights abuses against Kashmiris. It is only through our collective effort that India would be forced to change its course. What is at stake is humanity and world peace.
(The writer is Consul General of Pakistan in Los Angeles)
Back to Pakistanlink Homepage
