India’s Narendra Modi government has unilaterally changed the constitutional status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region by revoking the occupied region’s special status through a presidential order, stoking pro-freedom sentiments in Kashmiris and putting the entire subcontinent at risk of a nuclear war. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday signed an order repealing the special status granted to Indian-occupied Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, a move vehemently opposed by majority of the opposition. Indian opposition leaders say that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has played with sentiments of the people of Kashmir and murdered democracy. It termed the Presidential order to repeal Article 370 as not a wise decision saying further it is Modi government’s coup against constitution. India has gone back on its word on Kashmir by scrapping Article 370. History will judge India as a betrayer who was not able to keep word of its forefathers, including Sardar Patel. None can imagine what will happen next. People in Kashmir cannot be under curfew forever. Pakistan has said that it will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps taken by India. The statement came after Narendra Modi’s government introduced plans to weaken the special rights of residents in Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IoK), amid heavy deployment of security forces and suspension of communications, with private mobile networks, internet services and telephone landlines cut. Authorities in IOK have placed large parts of the region under lockdown while Delhi has sent in tens of thousands of additional troops and traded accusations of clashes with Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC). Where is international community’s influence? It is amazing that the US State Department did not fully react to the events unfolding in Indian Occupied Kashmir and just said that we are taking note of India’s announcement revising the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir and India’s plan to split the state into two union territories. It did not show concern even like Amnesty International about reports of detentions and respect for individual rights. Actually, the US knew about Narendra Modi’s intentions to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A for IOK. Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had briefed his American counterpart, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, about Modi’s designs. Jaishankar’s meeting with Pompeo came on the sidelines of the ninth East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok on 1st August and Jaishankar reiterated to Pompeo that the US does not need to mediate on the Kashmir dispute, therefore, Modi government did not want to take a chance when it came to the US, and apprised the Trump administration of the move. Unfortunately, the international community didn’t prevent India from changing the status of IOK.
History will judge India as a betrayer who was not able to keep word of its forefathers, including Sardar Patel. None can imagine what will happen next. People in Kashmir cannot be under curfew forever. Pakistan has said that it will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps taken by India.
