N.P. UPadhyaya, Kathmandu: The Indian establishment under Hindu fundamentalist Prime Minister Narendra Bhai Modi has invited troubles of Himalayan dimension not only for him but also for the entire South Asian region.
The undeclared protectorate Nepal favors Indian action which demands no elaboration as to why? Poor Nepal. Thanks 12 point agreement.
Notably, this region is already a volatile one which was awaiting President Trump’s “mediatory” efforts to ease the Kashmir issue and thereby giving peace a chance in the entire region more so in the troubled Kashmir valley.
The Kashmiri population are living under the chaotic shadow of Modi-Shah-Doval terror, sources claim.
However, Modi-Shah-Doval Troika catapulted the Kashmir situation which may have for some time now appeared to have gone in the favor of the regional bully but the fact is that “things” have just been set on rolling for the worst to say the least.
The people in Kashmir have begun to warm up the streets.
With India scrapping article 370, the status of Kashmir valley has suddenly become different which apparently goes against the wishes and preference of the Kashmiri Muslims residing in the valley since decades and decades.
The scrapping of the Special status of Kashmir valley also has irked the Pakistani establishment which summoned the Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad to register the country’s “unequivocal rejection” of India’s decision to scrap a special status for India-administered Kashmir, simultaneously ramping up efforts to mobilize international support against the move.
Whatever has happened in Kashmir valley and that too so swift the Indian action that it was, it only speaks of Pakistan’s “speed less” diplomacy which remained unmatched to what is being practiced by S. Shankar and Ajit Doval combine.
IN fact, Pakistan has no connections with the smaller neighbors in South Asia more so after PM Khan assumed office last year around this time. FM Qureshi has to work hard and enhance his speed. He has to travel a lot or send his Foreign Secretary to visit smaller neighbors.
But yet, “[Pakistan’s] foreign secretary to begin with, conveyed his country’s unequivocal rejection of these illegal actions as they are in breach of international law and several UN Security Council resolutions,” read a Pakistani government statement released after Monday’s meeting, writes Asad Hashim for the Al Jazzera, August 5, 2019.
A pretty annoyed China over the fresh Indian action of Kashmir says that “Beijing has always opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in the western section of the China-India border”, a
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying said in a statement made this Tuesday July 6, 2019.
“The recent unilateral revision of domestic laws by the Indian side continues to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty, which is unacceptable and will not have any effect,” Hua said.
“Recently India has continued to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law,” she added. “Such practice is unacceptable and will not come into force. We urge India to exercise prudence in words and deeds concerning the boundary question, strictly abide by relevant agreements concluded between the two sides and avoid taking any move that may further complicate the boundary question.”
A highly concerned Pakistani premier has called for international support in resolving the situation in Kashmir, which has only deteriorated in the two weeks since Khan sat down at the White House with President Donald Trump, who appeared to claim that Modi asked him to mediate in the decades-long dispute.
Making a strong statement at the joint session of the Parliament, the Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said “India’s move may lead to a war”.
The Pakistan Army too has said that “We can go to any extent’’ to defend the people of the disputed state that’s claimed in full by the two nuclear-armed nations.
The government and the Army are on the same page which adds strength to the resolve on “unilateral” developments in Kashmir brought about by India.
“We will retaliate any attack” on part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, PM Khan said in the parliament that was convened to take stock of the suddenly developed situation in Kashmir valley.
“This is not a nuclear blackmail. The world will be responsible if it doesn’t take action against India.”
PM Khan while talking to the joint session of the Parliament also accused India’s Hindu nationalist government of promoting a “racist ideology.”
He predicted that India would intensify a crackdown on Kashmiris, saying, “I fear they may initiate ethnic cleansing in Kashmir to wipe out the local population.”
“We will go the Tipu Sultan way if time so demanded in defending Pakistan and the cause we champion for”, said a Pakistani Prime Minister hinting that chances of even using nuclear capabilities can’t be ruled out come what may.
A made a very dangerous commitment.
Notably, Pakistan is helping the United States to negotiate a deal with the Taliban that would allow American forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.
“But if conflict flares up surrounding Kashmir, those efforts could be upended, says a newsman associated with The News.
What if Pakistan drops the idea out of frustration of helping the US over the Afghanistan issue? How President Trump will react to such a Pakistani political overture?
Isn’t the Indian action taken on Kashmir a calculated ploy to keep President Trump at a distance with the Pakistan PM Khan? Certainly it is.
That Pakistan is too much annoyed with the “unilateral “Indian actions on Kashmir, gets reflected from the fact that the country has announced that it will downgrade diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with India”.
As per the report, India’s High Commissioner will also be removed from the country, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday. It added that Islamabad will not send its own ambassador to New Delhi.
Indeed determined moves.
The series of announcements came after a National Security Committee meeting on Wednesday, where the office of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Islamabad would also review bilateral agreements with India and take the issue up with the United Nations and the UN Security Council.
An article by Alex Ward for the VOX, says, “India’s government has made a controversial move to usurp power from the nation’s only Muslim-majority state, potentially igniting unrest in one of the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoints.
Alex Ward further claims in his article titled India’s risky Kashmir power grab, explained” that the present move carried out by the Indian Union was a move to be a part of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist project.
The Indian government says that with the recent move, J&K will turn from a state to a union territory which would mean that India’s central government in New Delhi will gain much more control over the area’s affairs.
New Delhi is also considering splitting parts of J&K into two federal territories: the new state of Jammu and Kashmir, which will get its own legislature; and Ladakh, a remote and mountainous area that won’t get a legislature adds Alex Ward.
To recall, the Kashmir conflict is more than 70 years old.
The conflict in the valley continues since the days when India and Pakistan became independent nation after the British rule ended in this part of the world except Nepal which has remained ever a sovereign country till to date.
After Partition in 1947, the then ruler of Kashmir, King Hari Singh could not decide whether to have his Muslim-majority region join India or Pakistan?
However, in 1948, the UN called for a “plebiscite” to occur after the region was demilitarized, in order to determine the future status of Kashmir which never materialized.
Since then Kashmir’s status has remained unresolved. The region has also triggered multiple wars between India and Pakistan making the smaller nations of South Asia politically unstable since then.
The danger is real in that both India and Pakistan are nuclear countries.
In the mean while the Amnesty International, August 4, 2019, has said that “ the unilateral decision by the government of India to revoke Jammu & Kashmir’s special status without consulting J&K stakeholders , amidst a clampdown on civil liberties and communications blackout is likely to increase the risk for further HR violations and inflame tension”.
A Swedish Professor of the Indian origin Ashok Swain writes in his Twitter account August 5 that “Those claiming that the scrapping of Article 370 will integrate Kashmir with India should know that the Article 370 is the one which was integrating Kashmir with India. Without it accession has become as Occupation”
Now that Kashmir has been thrown into a permanent chaos, it remains yet to be seen as to how the US President Donald Trump reacts. Also how his administration takes the entire development in the South Asian region will have to be watched.
“The US, China and the UN and other powers with influence over India and Pakistan must urgently do what they can to prevent India’s folly from escalating into a perilous and unpredictable regional crisis”, claims the New York time editorial published the other day.
Professor Shri Dhar Khatri talking to a Nepali media outlet claims that Indian action on Kashmir which has been recognized by both India and Pakistan as a disputed territory and thus India’s unilateral action/decision demands to be made a matter of intense debate.
Some Nepali observers believe that India may have taken this swift decision on Kashmir fearing President Trump’s mediation in Kashmir affairs which may bring in the issue to the International table ( that it has already been) and may enhance the prestige of Pakistan and its new Prime Minister which by implication would mean that Modi’s international rating has gone down.
It is this fear of President Trump’s ruptured mediation talks which prompted India to take this unfortunate decision that contains the seeds of greater conflict in the region.
Kashmir continues to be the flashpoint in South Asia. India in many more ways than one has hinted its “inner designs” which were not that sacrosanct for the entire region itself. But for some known and unknown Lendhup Dorjes’ (traitors) in our own vicinity they have reasons to celebrate. Needless to say, countless Lendhups reside in Nepal under the mercy of the regional bully.
For the Road: Two recent developments probably pushed the Indian government to act now, so writes MICHAEL KUGELMAN, AUGUST 5, 2019, (4:47 PM).
Kugleman is the deputy director at Asia Program and South Asia and a senior associate at the Wilson Center. He mainly writes on South Asian affairs except Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
The first being the U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate the Kashmir dispute.
And the second, adds Michael Kugleman that being the “rapidly progressing Afghanistan peace process, facilitated to an extent by Islamabad, which could lead to an eventual political settlement that gives the Taliban a prominent role in government.
Each of these developments strengthens Pakistan’s hand, so assesses Kugleman in his fresh write up in FP (Foreign Policy) dated August 5 afternoon.
“Making a dramatic move on Kashmir enables New Delhi to push back against Islamabad. It also sends a strong message to Washington about New Delhi’s utter lack of interest in external mediation”, concluded Kugleman.
He claims that New Delhi’s crackdown could send the region spinning into instability.
In the meanwhile, My Nation report dated August 7 claims that Muslim rights activists, including members of the Pakistani-American community, held demonstrations outside the Indian Embassy in Washington to protest against scrapping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
People of Kashmir deserve independence, deserve their rights and deserve justice, Nihad Awad, national executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said outside the Indian Embassy in Washington.
Similarly, in Birmingham, Britain, which is home to an estimated 120-150,000 people who identify as Kashmiri, community leaders have expressed anger at the “aggression”, accusing India of deliberately stoking fear and division which could lead to violence towards the Kashmiri population.
Protest co-ordinator Abu Alamgir, a political activist from the Alum Rock area of the city, responded to community calls for action:
For the Road: To recall and for the record, the ruling party in India’s BJP’s hatred of Muslims is an inheritance from its century-old parent organization, the cultish paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; the chief of the RSS in the 1940s, M.S. Golwalkar, who had then argued that Muslims were India’s Jews and that Hindus needed to manifest a “race spirit” similar to that of the Nazis. Now, BJP’s targets have expanded to include not just Muslims, but anybody critical of Modi, the party, and Hindutva.
In addition, an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir was held on August 6 in the wake of “illegal” actions by India to alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Indian Kashmir, the OIC has said.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on J&K has termed Modi Govt’s Decision to Revoke the Article 370 as ‘Illegal’
Nepal is being targeted simply because this country prefers not to obey to the Indian dictates. However, Nepal has Mirjaffors in abundance which makes India easy to micro-manage Nepal through the effective use and over use of its planted agents.
What if Tri-Color occupies Nepal? What these Mirjaffors shall do?