Sidestepping the charade

Let’s hope other nations will follow suit in seeking greater transparency on what is happening in the disputed region

In a slap on New Delhi, envoys from EU countries have refused to join a guided tour of India-occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir because their guides are unlikely to let them meet the detained local politicians and obtain a less-than manicured view of the disputed region that has been under an information and physical blockade for the past five months.

One European diplomatic source was quoted by the local media as saying that the envoys wanted to meet people freely and of their choosing to get their untainted view of the conflict and impacts of stripping away the autonomy of the occupied region. The people that these envoys ideally want to speak to are the three former chief ministers of the region – Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — all of whom are currently under house arrest. Moreover, the EU envoys would preferably want to speak to these leaders without Indian officers breathing down their neck.

The Indian government, though, insists that envoys from some 15 countries, including the United States and South Korea, are on track to join the two-day trip while other officials tried to downplay the withdrawal by EU diplomats citing the short notice for the trip and that they could go on a separate trip later. Last October, around 30 European lawmakers had been taken to the region which New Delhi insisted was a ‘private’ initiative but only after the EU refused to grant it official status.

The hesitation of EU lawmakers and diplomats to be taken on a trip — akin to a visit to an open-air zoo — is understandable. Not going on such a trip, though, carries a greater message and one that New Delhi has heard loud and clear: that the Europeans will not fall for the charade of “all is well” in Kashmir. Let’s hope, for the sake of Kashmiris, that other nations will follow suit in seeking greater transparency on what is happening in the disputed region.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2020.

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