Modi rides rough-shod unchecked
Not a finger lifted against India's brutal aggression in Kashmir.
"What is the world going to do? Is it going to appease the market of 1.2 billion or is it going to stand up for justice and humanity?"
By: Gulamhusein A, Abba
Author's note: This has been very difficult for me to write. It is a multiple whammy for me. As a compassionate human being I grieve at what the Kashmiris are going through. As a lifelong activist for rule of law, justice and peace I am appalled. As a Muslim I feel the pain of Kashmiri Muslims who are in the majority. And the wrong doer in this case is India, the country I was born in and lived in for 54 years, including the time of partition, a country I love. As an Indian I am unimaginably pained that my country is guilty of this heinous crime.
Those who believe in, respect and honor the rule of law, justice and peace, especially the Indians amongst them, cannot but be agonized and appalled at what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done in Kashmir.
He has gone against the principle enunciated by the leaders of India that princely states having a Hindu majority must be integrated with India even if their Muslim rulers wanted to accede to Pakistan. He has now annexed to India the state of Kashmir, which has a majority of Muslims but was ruled by a Hindu who acceded to India. He has violated the constitution of India and betrayed the solemn assurances and guarantees given, at the time of partition of India, to the Hindu ruler of Kashmir to persuade him to accede to India. Worse, he has invaded Kashmir so brutally that it made headline news in the media all over the world.
We can draw some consolation from the fact that the judiciary in India has maintained its independence and integrity. Just a few days after India occupied Kashmir the Supreme Court of India admitted several petitions relating to Article 370 and subsequent lock-down in Kashmir. It rejected the government's objection to issue of notice and went ahead and issued notice to the federal government on all petitions challenging the revocation of Article 370. On another petition it refused a request from the government to appoint an interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir. It also referred petitions related to scrapping of the special status for occupied Kashmir to a five-judge constitution bench for hearing in October.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had sharply criticized New Delhi's recent actions in India-administered Kashmir and supported India's rival Pakistan. But when he visited India the Kashmir issue was skirted.
The UN has rejected Pakistan's request to intervene, insisting that it is a bilateral issue and needs to be resolved bilaterally by the two nations.
This stand makes no sense. It is precisely because the two nations have not been able to solve the issue by themselves that the matter was referred to the UN in the first place. And the UN has been insisting that it should be solved bilaterally and peacefully. India has taken matters into its own hand and invaded Kashmir. Surely this naked aggression is cause for the UN to intervene.
Nor must it be forgotten that apart from India and Pakistan, there is a third party involved--the government of Kashmir and the people of Kashmir. India unilaterally taking away their right for autonomy, which was part of the agreement between the government of India and the ruler of Kashmir for the latter acceding to India--this by itself calls for UN intervention
It is a sad state of affairs that not justice, nor rule of law prevails these days. A country can get away with murder if it has massive military power or offers a temptingly huge market.
This became so evident in the case of Saudi government's ghastly murder, dismemberment and disposal of one of its own citizens, Jamal Kashoggi. Trump infamously said he would take no action against the Saudi government, not even a rebuke, because he did not want to put into jeopardy the orders in millions of dollars by Saudis from the US.
Not only in Kashmir but in Myanmar, in China, in Hong Kong, in Israel and in Turkey and Syria, to name but a few, mass killings and violations of human rights is going on in full view of the world but governments just look on.
Echoing in world's ears is the single question Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan raised in his speech in the UN: "What is the world going to do? Is it going to appease the market of 1.2 billion or is it going to stand up for justice and humanity?"
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
