Yesterday Ex CM Punjab Mr. Shehbaz Sharif tweeted that Jingoism is written all over Modi’s DNA.
Despite fight against COVID-19, incessant violations of LoC by Indian army have become a norm with 940 such incidents recorded since August 2019, when the lockdown in Kashmir was imposed. Allegations of ‘terror launching pads’ by India is meant to whip up propaganda against Pakistan!”
This tweet reminds me that violations of international laws, defiance of humanitarian laws and withdrawals from the international treaties have become a common norm of world powers and emerging economies of the world.
In 2015, US withdrawal from the arms control agreement with Iran has heightened tensions and left the remaining signatories scrambling to keep the deal alive. Then in November 2019, US withdrawal from Paris Agreement on climate change, leaving the global climate diplomats to plot a way forward without the cooperation of the world’s largest economy.
These are only two, while there are many more violations of international laws and treaties committed by powerful states in their interests.
On 5 August 2019, the Modi-led government forced a revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution that had hitherto provided a special constitutional status to the occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir. The revocation of the article 370 is not only a gross violation of the UNSC resolution and repudiation of Indian constitution but it clearly is in abidance with the RSS’s – the parent body of BJP – original agenda of converting India into Hindu Rashtra.
BJP has finally realized the dream of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who founded Bharatiya Jana Sangh that later became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. Mukherjee rose to fame for the slogan, “Ek desh mein do vidhan nahi challeyengey” (There cannot be two constitutions in one country).
This decision is a clear violation of UNSC Resolutions 38, 39, and 47, amongst others, which calls on both India and Pakistan to improve the situation and seek a democratic method of ‘free and impartial plebiscite’ to decide the fate of IoK. Resolution No51 also stressed upon the need to ensure that the future status of Jammu and Kashmir is determined ‘in accordance with the will of the (Kashmiri) people’.
The ‘forceful’ abrogation of Article 370 and the nine month long lockdown in the occupied Kashmir indicates the move is an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.
In April 2020, a new Kashmir Domicile law has been introduced that is targeted to cause a deliberate and purposed ‘Demographic Flooding’. According to this new Kashmir domicile law, those who have resided for a period of 15 years in Kashmir are eligible to become permanent residents.
It is clear that the core purpose of revoking Article 370 is to settle outsiders in the IoK and change the demographics of the state into India’s favour. This also provides the necessary modalities and entitles so many categories of Indians whose settlement in the IoK becomes legalized after the revocation of Article 370.
Amid a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the corona virus, Indian troops have intensified operations in Kashmir, which was split into two federally administered territories until last August.
Since late March, Indian forces have killed 36 freedom fighters. For decades, Kashmiris have fought against the barbaric Indian rule in Kashmir, wanting independence for the Himalayan region. Kashmiris have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising due to the ensuing Indian military crackdown in the state.