Daily Times

Bharatiya Janata Party made a maiden entry in the state government of Indian controlled (occupied) part of Kashmir in March 2015, when it struck an Alliance with PDP. On 20 June 2018 BJP decided to pull out of the Alliance and the State was placed under Governor’s rule with immediate effect. This was the fourth time in the last 10 years that a Governor’s rule was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir.

As part of its planning BJP precipitated a collapse of law and order in the disputed part of the State and moved into a commanding position by declaring Presidential Rule in the State. It took effect from mid night of 19 December 2018.The dubiously elected legislature and the Government have now been replaced by a direct rule from Delhi.

PDP failed to pressure BJP from January 2015 to June 2018 to honour and execute the agenda agreed for the coalition Government. The period of coalition Government from 2015-2018 has been one of the worst periods of abuse in the history of Kashmir. Unprecedented violations of human rights, arrests, disappearances, torture, blinding and death of Kashmiri youth became an order of the day.

After the 14 June 2018 UN High Commissioner’s report on “Human Rights situation in Kashmir”, Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan, who sits on a minority cell of the All India Congress Committee, has made a statement at the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC)official press conference in Jammu that “Kashmir has become a killing field under BJP rule” and that if Congress came to power “a new law would be made to hang BJP leaders involved in killings of the people (in Kashmir).”

Congress leader Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan broke ranks with the communal culture of BJP and said that if his party comes to power, it will pay Rupees one crore and give a government job to the kin of those killed in Kashmir in the name of terrorism. He promised the release of militants after withdrawal of cases against them, if the Congress comes to power.

Haji Khan’s statement has unnerved BJP. He has been accused of representing “pro-terror and pro-Pak mind-set of the Congress”. The present Government in Delhi has perfected a technique of exploiting religious hatred and fooling and misleading the international community on the behaviour of armed and political resistance of the people of Kashmir, started to speed up the process of undoing the Indian occupation.Accusing Kashmiri or Indian Muslims of pro-Pakistan mind set has no merit and has passed its sell by date. Saner elements and common people in India have to challenge Modi’s anti Muslim narrative.

They need to know that a Sikh rights group has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in New York to designate Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a “foreign terrorist organisation”. Sikhs for Justice in the declaratory lawsuit have asked the court to designate the RSS as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing it of “believing in and practicing a fascist ideology and running a passionate, vicious and violent campaign to turn India into a “Hindu” nation with a homogeneous religious and cultural identity”.

Indians should be reminded that on 21 March 2005, David C. Mulford, U.S. Ambassador to India in his statement in New Delhi informed the press that “The Chief Minister of Gujarat state, Mr. Narendra Modi, applied for a diplomatic visa to visit the United States. On March 18, 2005, the United States Department of State denied Mr. Modi this visa under section 214 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act because he was not coming for a purpose that qualified for a diplomatic visa.” US ambassador added that, “Mr. Modi’s existing tourist/business visa was also revoked under section 212 (a) (2) (g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Section 212 (a) (2) (g) makes any foreign government official who “was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom” ineligible for a visa to the United States.”

In October 2017 BJP veteran leader Yashwant Sinha attacked the government on the Kashmir imbroglio, insisting “India has lost people of the valley emotionally”. Government of India has passed the emotional barrier in Kashmir and has driven the people into a cul de sac of helplessness, for a routine killing

Releasing militants, making a financial payment and giving government jobs to the kins of those killed in Kashmir in the name of terrorism, is not a pro-terrorism or a pro-Pakistan mind set. The UN report has highlighted the need to pay reparation to all victims of human rights violations in the Indian controlled part of Kashmir. Killing of a Kashmiri by an Indian security personnel is a violation of the restraints placed by UN resolution on their behaviour, number and location. It is a war crime. If Serb and Bosnian war lord could not escape the reach of International Criminal Court in Hague, Indian generals and officers are no exception. One day they shall have to land in ICC holding cells in Hague for committing war crimes in Kashmir.

It is heartening that in the long list of Justice Rajindar Sachar Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Father of the Civil Liberties movement in India and a former judge of Bombay High Court Justice V M Tarkunde, Rajiv Ghandi, Dr. Karan Singh, Justice Markandey Katju, Arundhati Roy and many others, people of good conscience like Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan continue to show up for the people of Kashmir.

In October 2017 BJP veteran leader Yashwant Sinha attacked the government on the Kashmir imbroglio, insisting “India has lost people of the valley emotionally”.  Government of India has passed the emotional barrier in Kashmir and has driven the people into a cul de sac of helplessness, for a routine killing. It has to end.

Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani is President of London based NGO JKCHR, which is in special consultative status with the United Nations. He specializes in Peace Keeping, Humanitarian Operations, and Election Monitoring Missions. Dr. Gilani specializes in the Jurisprudence of UN Resolutions and Kashmir case. He was elected at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, to represent the Unrepresented Peoples and Nations of the World

Published in Daily Times, December 29^th 2018.