Daily Times

Consul General of India Sandeep Chakravarty, at the Indian Mission in New York, on 27 November talking at a private gathering of Kashmiri Pandits in New York has said that Government of India has an “Israel-like settlements model for Kashmiri Hindus” in Kashmir. He said, “I believe the security situation will improve, it will allow the refugees to go back, and in your lifetime, you will be able to go back … and you will be able to find security, because we already have a model in the world.”

Reassuring the Kashmiri Hindu audience, he added, “I don’t know why we don’t follow it. It has happened in the Middle East. If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it. The current Indian leadership is “determined” to do so.”

In his address in the video, the Indian diplomat also said the Israelis “kept their culture alive for 2,000 years outside their land” and then went back, referring to the formation of Israel in 1948. “I think we all have to keep the Kashmiri culture alive. The Kashmiri culture is the Indian culture. It is the Hindu culture,” Chakravarty said. “We have never used our strength as the majority community. We have never used the strength of our Hindu culture.”

Does India really have a plan to turn valley into Gaza and raise Hindu settlements, in the manner Israel has done in occupied Palestinian territories? If so India has a sinister programme to change the demography of Muslim majority in Kashmir. Prima facie Indian actions of 5 August and 31 October to dismember the State into Union Territories, are a preface of the ‘Israeli model settlement script’.

Indian Government that offered ‘sky is the limit’ to Kashmiri resistance movement in 1994, has decided to change its horses mid-stream and go full force to enforce the “strength of our Hindu culture”. It no more regards Kashmiri culture as a composite and plural culture but regards “The Kashmiri culture is the Indian culture. It is the Hindu culture.”

It is not a political statement and is more than that – a policy in place behind the scene in Delhi. Indian Consul General is the mind of the Government of India. Hinduism is of many kinds and Kashmiri Muslims, never treated Kashmiri Pandits – as Hindus. Even they would not call themselves as Hindus but Kashmiri Pandits. Times have changed and the re-settlement of Kashmiri Pandits, who left Valley in 1990s, is the result of a cooperative thinking of Kashmiri Pandits and Indian Hindus.

However, Indian Consul General has got it wrong on the question of “Kashmiri Pandit Exodus” in 1990. Kashmiri exodus could be traced to 1716 when Jawaharlal Nehru’s ancestor Raj Kaul moved to Delhi Darbar. A jagir with a house situated on the banks of a canal had been granted to Raj Kaul, and, from the fact of this residence, ‘Nehru’ (from Nahar, a canal) came to be attached to his name. Kaul had been the family name; this changed to Kaul-Nehru; and, in later years, Kaul dropped out and Kauls became simply Nehrus. It was followed by other migrations during the famine of 1832 and the epidemic of 1867.

Muslims migrated from the State on account of the Sikh-Dogra oppression, famines and economic strangulation. In a few generations, they became highly educated and economically prosperous in the free atmosphere of British India. They could not forget their origin and continued to nourish the attachment with the land of their ancestors. It was in 1896, that these Kashmiri Muslims formed a community platform, named, Anjuman-i-Kashmiri Mussalmanan-i-Lahore. The first meeting was held in February 1896 was attended by Sheikh Mohammad Iqbal, who later became famous as Allama Sir Mohammad Iqbal. Muslims of Kashmir never bore an ill will against the Kashmiri Pandits, who were the main engine of Sikh and Dogra administration in the State.

India does not have a case to plan “Israeli like settlements for Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir”. Kashmiri Pandit refugees are a figment in the full circle that represents the refugee question in the State. There are 2.5 million, five generations of Kashmiri Muslim refugees living in the four provinces of Pakistan. Like any other refugee Muslim refugees have a right guaranteed in UN Security Council Resolution 47 of 21 April 1948, to return in safety and dignity. I have defended the right of return of Kashmiri Pandits at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva and in JKCHR report of February 1997. All my life from childhood to date, it never crossed my mind that Kashmiri Pandits after a short stay in India would graduate into “Kashmiri Hindus” and their plural Kashmiri culture would re-designate itself as “Hindu culture”.

India has issued new maps of Kashmir and has revived her claim on Azad Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan. We are still caught in the frivolous debate in the Ministry of Law whether, Kashmir needs to be referred to International Court of Justice and whether there is a need to re-examine the Shimla Agreement, used as a shield by India in her favour

Government of India has cascaded from a secular democratic State into a colonial, communal and barbaric State against the Muslims in the Valley. It took advantage of our amoebic politics and shifting policies on Kashmir and felt free to take the actions on 5 August and 31 October 2019 in the State. We have yet not been able to seek the vacation of fresh occupation and the unlawful action to dismember the part of the State under Indian administration. Indian Consul General’s statement has exposed the cat in the bag. Indian Government would not hesitate to start ‘Israeli type settlements” for Kashmiri Hindus – earlier known for centuries as Kashmiri Pandits, if we do not involve the United Nations and hold India in her tracks.

We have been outsmarted by India. Indian actions have no merit except that we have failed to hold on to the merits of Kashmir case. Our politicians, writers, and members of various schools of opinion, turn turtle, after a single visit to India. Kashmir case was a core issue with India. It became one of the eight other outstanding issues with India in July 1999. The Indian influence was so prevailing that we betrayed the Kashmir Case and did not raise it at the UN Security Council from November 1965 to August 2019, for almost 50 years. All Government of Kashmir and Pakistan share the blame. Leaders of Pakistan and Kashmir are no exception.

India has issued new maps of Kashmir and has revived her claim on Azad Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan. We are still caught in the frivolous debate in the Ministry of Law whether, Kashmir needs to be referred to International Court of Justice and whether there is a need to re-examine the Shimla Agreement, used as a shield by India in her favour. If the Law Ministry cannot discharge the routine duty of preparing a correct summary on the re-appointment or extension of COAS, how on earth could it have the expertise on the jurisprudence of Kashmir Case and be able to prepare a summary for ICJ.

We are up against difficult times. The merits of Kashmir Case and the people of Kashmir are with us. Unfortunately, we have failed to be with either of the two. How would the world, people in India and people in the Valley of Kashmir in particular, feel and interpret, that a two day International Seminar on Kashmir, held at Muzaffarabad on 27-28 November, did not mention UN Resolutions on Kashmir and did not mention the Indian actions of 5 August and 31 October, in the 15 item Muzaffarabad Declaration adopted at the end of the Seminar.

Muzaffarabad Declaration has vitiated the purposes of the Government of Azad Kashmir. The Government has two declared purposes in the Constitution. Leaving out UN, UN Resolutions, Indian actions of 5 August and 31 October, raise serious doubts and suspicions around the intent of the SEMINAR. It is a serious and first time departure from the Jurisprudence of Kashmir Case by none other than Government Azad Kashmir and State Subjects, employed in the Service of the State. The Muzaffarabad Declaration has hurt Kashmir case more than the Indian actions of 5 August and 31 October.

Consul General, sir do not even think of an “Israeli model Settlement” for Kashmiri Hindus or their proxies. We shall demand the reinstatement of “visa” required by Indians until 31 March 1959 to visit Kashmir.

The author is President of London based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations