It is a known fact that on August 5, 2019, the Modi-led BJP government in India revoked Articles 35A and 370 of the Indian constitution, took away the autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, permitted Hindus to purchase property and migrate to the state, and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories. As mentioned in The New York Times on 4 March 2020, Articles 35-A and 370 of India’s constitution gave Kashmir special protections against Indian immigration and property ownership.
These actions were taken by the Modi government to permanently integrate Jammu and Kashmir with India without the will of the people of the state. And fearing the backlash to the revocation orders, India increased its troop level in Kashmir from 700,000 (already there to crush the Kashmiris’ ongoing freedom struggle) to 1100,000, jailed Kashmiri leaders and youth, and kept the Kashmiris under a lockdown and a curfew.
Modi August 5 actions were also in stark violation of the UNSC Resolutions of 1948/49 on the Kashmir conflict. The resolutions stated that a plebiscite would be held in Jammu and Kashmir to determine whether the people wanted their state to join Pakistan or India. However, India never cooperated with the UNSC to hold a plebiscite.
Kashmiris as well as world leaders have flatly rejected India’s claim that Jammu and Kashmir is India’s integral part and its internal matter
Modi Government’s August 5 steps taken to integrate Kashmir with India are in the negation of Nehru’s 1953 promise to the Kashmiris for holding a plebiscite to decide Kashmir’s accession; the steps are also in violation of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999, in which it was agreed that all issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute would be resolved through a dialogue.
In view of the status of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, to forcibly integrate Kashmir with India was a blunder committed by the Modi government. That is why, while India’s August 5 steps in Kashmir have been rejected by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, they have also not been approved by the major world powers, world leaders and world media channels/outlets.
According to Al Jazeera, on March 12, 2020, and The New York Times, a joint survey conducted in the Indian-occupied Kashmir by researchers from a university in Kashmir and New York’s Skidmore College, regarding India’s revocation of Kashmir’s special status, 91 percent of college/university students want a complete withdrawal of Indian forces from the region. They have challenged India’s claim that revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy will resolve the Kashmir dispute.
At the world level, in their post-August 5 statements, the UN, the world’s major powers, leaders and media are clearly telling India that Jammu and Kashmir is not its integral part, but a UNSC recognised dispute between Pakistan and India, and needs an early resolution to avoid any future war between the nuclear armed Pakistan and India.
US President Trump has repeatedly offered his mediation over Kashmir, as published in India Today on February 25, 2020. During his India’s visit on February 24-25, 2020, he stated that Kashmir was a big dispute between Pakistan and India, Trump again offered his mediation on Kashmir.
As per Al Jazeera on February 17, 2020, during his visit to Pakistan in February 2020, Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed “his deep concern about the Kashmir situation… he offered his mediation on Kashmir dispute, [and] he also called for the implementation of UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.”
While China has rejected India’s unilateral actions taken on August 5, 2020, it wants the UNSC to play its role in resolving the Kashmir dispute; it also supports a negotiated settlement of the dispute. The UK, France, Germany and Russia have asked Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir dispute through a dialogue; hence they have also rejected India’s false claim that Kashmir is its integral part.
The world media has widely condemned India’s August 5, 2019 actions in Kashmir and have asked it to lift the lockdown in Kashmir, as per The Indian Express on March 20, 2020. The New York Times has appealed to China and the US to join hands to prevent, what it has called “India’s folly” in Kashmir, from escalating into an unpredictable regional crisis. The newspaper further said, “Bloodshed is all but certain, and tension with Pakistan will soar.”
The Modi government in India is failing in forcibly and unlawfully integrating Kashmir with India as Kashmiris as well as world leaders have flatly rejected India’s claim that Jammu and Kashmir is India’s integral part and its internal matter. That is why the Kashmiri youth is asking Indian forces to leave Kashmir, and the world leaders are asking India to either accept mediation on Kashmir or resolve the dispute with Pakistan through a dialogue. India will have to do that sooner or later.
The writer is a former senior consultant and research fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute, and Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad