Prominent Indians ask Modi govt to revoke harsh measures in Occupied Kashmir

An informal group of prominent Indian citizens has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to revoke harsh measures in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) by balancing security considerations with the public interest.

The group including seven former senior judges of the Indian supreme court and chief justices of various high courts, five ex-top bureaucrats, and three senior retired defence officers in a report said the constitutional changes undertaken by the Indian government on Aug. 5, 2019, have bewildered Kashmiris and left them stunned and dumbfounded.

The group headed by Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur, a former judge of the supreme court and Radha Kumar, ex-government mediator underlined that the absence of a multi-dimensional dialogue for settling the Kashmir issue between the New Delhi and Kashmiri leaders, and India and Pakistan, has given rise to anger, despondency, and despair among people.

The group named as Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir, which also involved former Home Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao, retired Lt. Gen. Harcharanjit Singh Panag and retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak has emphasised that impact of India’s actions has been “disastrous”.

“The economic, social, and political impact of these actions, and their long duration – eleven months thus far – have been disastrous,” said the report.

The group said the impact on education has been particularly severe.

''Schools and colleges functioned for barely 100 days between 2019 and 2020, the bulk of which were pre-August 2019,'' the report documented.

It further said after the Covid-related lockdown when schools and universities moved to online classes across the world, in Kashmir the permission of 2G facility instead of 4G did not allow digital learning.

Economy devastated

Claiming that IOJ&K was one of the better-performing regions economically as well as on human development indices, the report said the events after August 2019 have plunged the region into a sharp downward spiral.

“The state ranked third highest on its tax revenue, in comparison to other [Indian] states, and second-highest on non-tax revenue. It was among the top three special category states for low fiscal deficit, and among the top ten for its low poverty rate,” the report said, refuting Indian government argument that semi-autonomous status of the region was revoked to ensure economic development.

The net state domestic product of IOJ&K had risen from over 530 billion rupees ($7.90 billion) in 2011-12 to over 780 billion rupees ($10.4 billion) in 2016- 17. Its per capita gross state domestic product had risen from around 60,000 rupees to 100,000 rupees.

Quoting trade bodies, the eminent citizens' group recorded total losses incurred to the businesses over the last one year from August 2019-June 2020 have reached 400 billion rupees ($5.3 billion). In the first four months of lockdown, Occupied Kashmir’s industries had suffered a loss of 178 billion rupees ($2.4 billion).

Demanding release of all remaining political detainees and juveniles who were taken into preventive detention on or after Aug. 4, 2019, the former judges noted that dozens of public interest petitions challenging human rights violations did not receive the prompt judicial attention.