Mockery in occupied state

New Delhi seems to be too power-intoxicated to ignore ground realities. The reported plans to hold a G20 event in Occupied Kashmir is no less than a mockery, and comes at the behest of ridiculing norms of peace and civilisation. The occupied state of more than 10 million Muslim souls is the world’s largest open-air concentration camp, and has been under siege for decades. It was deprived of its special status guaranteed under Article 370 of the Indian constitution on August 5, 2019, and since then it is no more than a neo-colonised ghetto. Delhi’s attempt to host the who’s who in realpolitik is tantamount to hoodwinking world public opinion. The onus is on the world community to not only question India on the de jure status of occupied Jammu & Kashmir, but also to prevail over it to scale down atrocities in pursuit of a genuine solution with Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

This daredevil attempt to host world leaders in Kashmir Valley is a ploy. India itself is sure that it won’t be able to do it, nor are the ground realities in favour of such a summit. Delhi is puzzled as it struggles to run the official machinery on the premise of around a million-strong military presence in occupied Kashmir. It has silenced all political voices by the use of brute force and gimmicks of intimidation. Moreover, its policy to throw open the Valley for alien residents has badly led to demographic change, leading to upping the ante in the security and political conundrum. This travesty of justice must be checked. And what better a forum than the peace-loving G20 could be to question India over the human rights violations and the devastation it has inflicted on it.

The time has come to address the Kashmir issue in all sincerity. It has been on the United Nations agenda for seven decades, and nothing substantial was done. Now in an era when Pakistan has opted for geo-economics in its foreign policy and time and again offered an olive branch to India, it is incumbent upon the eastern neighbour to mend fences in the larger interests of regional peace and development. Enacting a G20 drama will not absolve India of its crimes in the occupied state.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2022.

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