Letters and Editorials 25485 Views by Ameer Tarin

Kashmir Inches Towards Goal For Freedom



India, since Kashmir occupation on October 26, 1947, very cleverly used erstwhile Soviet Union´s veto power to thwart all attempts by United Nations through its various Resolutions to allow people of Kashmir a plebiscite to choose their political future. Since then the profuse use of coercion, intimidation and military might hasn´t helped India to get the desired result. There is not a single country in the world that officially accepts Kashmir as an ´integral part´ of India.

More than one hundred thousand men, women and children killed in a matter of 27 years (Indian official figure seventy thousand Kashmiris dead), scores of women raped, thousands disappeared in torture chambers, many hundred blinded with the use of dreaded pellet guns, property worth billions razed to ground and the process goes on unabated.

Any reference to Kashmir either by Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), European Union (EU), powers those matter on international level or United Nations causes a ripple effect in India. India dreads the third party mediation as facing the questions about the ground reality in Kashmir becomes very hard to explain. The voices within India supporting Kashmir independence gaining momentum are very unnerving for Indian hierarchy guided by hindutva nostalgia.

OIC reference to Kashmir as an independent nation was well timed, as it knows the historical fact that Kashmir has been an independent nation before Indian occupation, having its constitution, two houses of parliament and its own army of the King Yousuf Shah Chak or the Dogra rulers down the line to Maharaja Hari Singh. In comparison, independent India had its constitution drafted much later in early fifties of 20th century by Dalit leader Baba Sahib Ambedkar.

The major powers USA, UK, Australia, Canada and China deeply concerned reiterate that the world cannot wait for something to happen. The race for acquiring weapons of mass destruction and development of nukes in the Indian sub-continent with speed creates a very scary situation. The international community is well aware of the history of four wars India fought with its neighbors China and Pakistan.

India´s military machine has led to arrogance for some even to brag about a dressing down formulae to intimidate and browbeat OIC members but the saner elements do realize that India needs oil and gas to carry on living in the world like any other nation to survive and cannot afford adventures or political jingoism.

Freedom fighters of Kashmir are labeled by India as terrorists and separatists in the same manner British called Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev as terrorists and separatists. Kashmir has had a long history of betrayals and the last one, in a crafty manner, was offered by Pandit Nehru in 1947 using the services rendered by Mountbattens, Dwarkanath Kachru, V P Menon, Mehr Chand Mahajan assisted, abetted and helped by a posse of elite Kashmiri Pandit bureaucrats.

India, generally, quotes examples of Muslim countries devoid of ´democratic system of government´ to justify its actions as a ´viable democracy´ and we have seen this democracy working vis a vis Muslims of Meerut, Jabalpur, Aligarah, Thana Bhiwindi, Jaipur, Christian belt of North-East, Naxalites, Maoists, Assam, Modi´s Gujarat and above all razed Babri Mosque to satisfy Hindu mythological sentimentality.

Kashmiris visiting abroad have no alternative but to travel on Indian passport out of compulsion, in the same manner Gandhi travelled to South Africa as an employee of businessman Abdullah Seth, including Pandit Nehru and all other Indians who travelled on British Indian passports. Kashmiri Muslims travelling in and out of Kashmir have huge stories to tell about the harassment, endurance of treatment meted out to them by the staff at Indian High Commissions, Consulates and at the Indian airports.

UAE and Saudi Arabian authorities displayed a welcome goodwill gesture and allowed construction of Hindu temples on their lands though against their constitutional and religious compulsions. The recent state of the art multistoried Dubai BURJ was wrapped in Indian tri-color flag (January 25, 2017) to give India a taste of religious tolerance and demonstrate a will allowing all sections of global society to conduct business freely. This is in view of the multitudes of Indian public busy earning billions of petro-dollars to boost up the economy of their original country of domicile.

The general public in India and people of good repute the likes of Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, Meghnad Desai, Ranjit Sur, AB Vajpayee, Arvind Kejriwal, Radha Kumar, Arundhati Roy, P Chidambaram, Shanti Bhushan, Barkha Dutt, late Justice Tarkunde, Digvijaya Singh, Chiralekha Zutshi, Nitasha Kaul, Rajni Shaleen Chopra and many more humanists and intellectuals understand the pain and agony of Kashmir and on daily basis impress upon prime minister Modi´s government to listen to the call and settle Kashmir issue without causing any further damage.

The international pressure initiated by United States is mounting on India to pay heed to the calls made world over to settle the Kashmir issue. The hostility between neighboring nuclear nations with a backdrop of fighting wars will help no one and on the contrary, can only result in doom and peril unprecedented. Kashmir´s dead of all ages running in hundreds of thousands remind Kashmir on daily basis the purpose they sacrificed their lives for. No elections, no verbal economic packages will deter people from achieving the goal of independence.

An impression is created that a small minority in Kashmir asks for independence and majority would like to stay with India and if this is the reality then India must not lose the opportunity and allow Kashmir to hold a plebiscite under international supervision so that Kashmir becomes Indian property lock, stock and barrel.


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