Modi’s govt failed to achieve any result of Aug 5, illegal actions: ex-Indian minster

P Chidambaram says Article 370 aborogated to break up the IIOJK, suppress political activities

ISLAMABAD:

A senior Indian politician and former Union minister, P Chidambaram has said that Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is a big jail, stressing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has failed to achieve any result of its August 5, 2019 illegal actions.

According to the Kashmir Media Service, P Chidambaram, who is currently Member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, said in an article published on Sunday that all major fundamental rights were effectively suspended.

“The Public Safety Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act are invoked indiscriminately. Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) are conducted widely. All statutory commissions to uphold rights have been wound up. The new media policy … sanctifies censorship,” the article said.

Referred to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution to strip IIOJK of its special status, he said that the move was intended to break up the IIOJK, reduce its status to Union territories, bring the territories under the direct rule of New Delhi, suppress political activities, intimidate 7.5 million people of the IIOJK into submission, and quell freedom struggle.

“While the means have been employed, none of the ends has been achieved and, in my view, will never be achieved under the current dispensation’s policy,” he said. The Indian politician pointed out that the cases of Mubeen Shah, Miyan Abdul Qayoom, Gowher Geelani, Masarrat Zahra and Safoora Zafgar illustrate the abuse of law and the difficulties in getting justice.

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry had estimated that the loss of production in IIOJK alone since August 2019 was about Rs400,000 million and loss of jobs was 497,000. Tourist arrivals fell from 611,534 in 2017 to 316,424 in 2018 to 43,059 in 2019. The fruit, garment, carpet, IT, communications and transport industries have been badly hit, he added.

At the end of the article he said: “It will be a year on August 5, yet our vaunted Constitutional institutions—Parliament, courts and plural political system—have found no answers to the new Kashmir issue created on August 5, 2019.”

He concluded, saying: “That is a sad failure, and the sadness is compounded by the fact that there is no Abraham Lincoln on the horizon. Nor can we hear the soul-stirring words ‘that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth’.”