Daily Times

Democracy is a relative term in today’s world. India is hailed as world’s largest democracy despite the fact that it has snatched away the basic right of freedom from Kashmiris. It’s been 50 days since Kashmiris are held hostage in their ‘own’ so called country. Historically, in the accession document Kashmiri state vowed to join India, provided its special status was protected. By revoking the special status of Kashmir, the decades long vow has been broken. What message is being conveyed? That you can do whatever you want with the minority, if the majority has its own government. Does democracy protect the rights of majority only? It is alarming situation for the democracies of the world. What India did to Kashmir, is a threat to theory of democracy per se.

How can democratic countries like France, Germany and the United Sates can accept India as a democratic country, when it has blatantly caged 8 million people in Kashmir. Recently, President Trump’s show of solidarity with Prime Minister Modi, in Houston during Prime Minister Modi’s address to Indian diaspora, has also raised a question regarding democracy. How can a leader of a liberal state embrace another who is authorizing crimes against humanity in his state? Does the need for gaining votes mislead the leaders and dominates over the principles of democracy and liberal thought?

It’s been more than a month since there has been curfew in Indian held Kashmir. Unlawful detentions, abuses, inexorable torture to youth and violence has gripped the valley since Aug 5. Indian Home Minister, Amit Shahon August 6 said that most of the people are happy on the changed status of Jammu and Kashmir. If they are happy then why India has made Kashmir a ‘largest prison’ in the world. Who puts happy people in a lock up?

Even China which is ruled by a single party and does not offer any choice in its political system has not locked Hong Kong, its citizens are free to protest. The people in Hong Kong blocked the airport recently. Hong Kong protested a law that could enable the suspects in Hong Kong to be extradited to China. In the wake of protest, this law has been finally dropped. But the protesters are now calling for more reforms leading to universal suffrage in elections of Hong Kong.

Democracy enables its citizens to express themselves. Peaceful protest is the right of a citizen of a democratic state. Kashmiris are being denied this right. Its democratically elected leaders like Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who had an alliance with the BJP government are also under house arrest. It did not even happen during colonization of the British raj. Mahatama Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah freely expressed their grievances against the British raj. There were mass protests against the wrong doings of the Raj.

Those who are in limbo, unclear of who they really are, Indian Assame or Bangladeshi migrant, are detained in 11 detention centers built in Assam. India, a proclaimed democracy has targeted the ‘unwanted citizens’ and caged them and also made them stateless

Markel Wolfgang, a renowned scholar who worked on the theory of democracy, believes that ‘inclusion’ is the future of democracy not exclusion, and the right wing populist parties are working against the required deeper integration. India’s BJP is a classic example of right wing political party that is working on an agenda of wooing eighty percent of Indian population. i.e Hindus. India is becoming a majoritarian country, and is least interested in providing basic human rights to minorities.

Other than caging Kashmiris, India’s BJP government has also boxed the Assames. They are stuck in nowhere. After passing the controversial law related to Indian citizenship, they are no more Indian citizens. Nearly two million people are rendered stateless. In order to ‘prove’ the citizenship to India, people have to produce their birth certificates in 120 days. Most of the people are old and don’t know where to get their birth certificates. Muslims are specifically being targeted in this trap of ‘excluding’ the unwanted. BJP is now worried that National Register of Citizens might also include some ‘genuine citizens’. By’genuine’ they mean Hindus. It is also urged by some BJP workers to introduce a bill that can give protection to ‘genuine citizens’ or ‘true sons of soil’.

Those who are in limbo, unclear of who they really are, Indian Assame or Bangladeshi migrant, are detained in 11 detention centers built in Assam. India, a proclaimed democracy has targeted the ‘unwanted citizens’ and caged them and also made them stateless. Is migration a crime? Even if some Bengalis have migrated from Bangladesh in Assam, it means that they opted for being a citizen of India, should they be just expelled for making this choice?

In Pakistan, all those who migrated to Pakistan till 1951, are given the status of Pakistani citizen. On the contrary, ‘being a Hindu’ now defines the criteria for attaining citizenship of India. The hindusization of India has also led to the rise of unpardonably callous mob violence, throughout India. People brutally kill, specifically Muslims for consuming the cow’s meat, for not chanting Jai Sri Ram and for just having a Muslim name. To brutally kill a Muslim, is a new normal in India.

India who claims to be a largest democracy is continuing the curfew in Jammu and Kashmir for an indefinite period. If the Indian state was sure that scarping article 370 is in the best interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, then why the Indian state is scared of Kashmiries reaction? Why India is not confidant that it can win the trust of Kashmiri people?

BJP is vigorously moving towards ‘hinduization’ of not only its territory but its national perspective. India is now a majoritarian Hindu state, where minorities are not given basic human rights, where the entire state machinery is working on either the suppression or complete exclusion of the unwanted. Should it still be known as a democratic state?

The writer is a Research Analyst at Institute of Regional Studies