Sultan M Hali
NARENDRA Modi must be ruing his August 5 action of rescinding Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution, annexing India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) and Ladakh as Union Territories. Over sixty days of lockdown of IoK, incarceration of Kashmiri leaders, disappearance of 15,000 Kashmiri youth to thwart any possible reaction to Modi’s unilateral and illegal move regarding Kashmir, is now beginning to take effect. At the 74th UNGA address, Imran Khan went the whole nine yards to expose the extremist mindset of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Narendra Modi’s involvement with the militant organization and agenda to follow Hitler’s Nazism and Mussolini’s Fascist agenda.
Having met nearly all the important world leaders on the sidelines of UNGA along with heads of human rights organizations, UN Secretary General and various Think Tanks pertinent to raising awareness regarding the Kashmir issue, Imran was expecting a better response by other world leaders during their UNGA address. Apart from China, Turkey and Malaysia, no other leader even mentioned Kashmir, however, Imran’s passionate appeal and logical reasoning did not fall on deaf ears. With every passing day, more human rights organizations, international parliamentarians, media and academics including Indian litterateurs are raising their voice against the atrocities of Indian troops and law enforcing agencies in IoK.
A high-level US Congressional delegation comprising Senators Chris Van Hollen and Maggie Hassan was barred by India from visiting Srinagar. Alternately, they were facilitated by Pakistan in continuing their fact-finding visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) along with their staffers and US Chargé d’affaires at Islamabad, Ambassador Paul Jones. The purpose of their visit was to see the ground situation and gauge public sentiment following the August 5 illegal Indian actions in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The larger objective of the visit was to expose India’s crackdown in IoK, which has been under total lockdown since August 5, following New Delhi’s move to strip the occupied territory off its special status. Both US lawmakers were highly critical of Indian intransigence.
While at UNGA, Modi tried to present his version of the Kashmir issue arguing that all was well, and his government was going to launch massive development plans in IOK. Imran Khan pricked the balloon of Modi’s high claims. US media has started a campaign to inform the world of Indian atrocities. “New York Times” of October 7, in its Op-Ed ‘In Kashmir, a Race Against Death, With No Way to Call a Doctor’ quoting doctors in IoK describes how dozens of Kashmiris died because they were unable to summon ambulances because of the communications breakdown. Several health officials, based on hospital records, estimated that hundreds of people have been left in an emergency situation without ambulances, and that many may have died as a result of that and other communication problems.
Similar harrowing tales are being brought to the front, forcing US and European legislators to take cognizance of Modi’s obduracy in persisting with the siege of IoK. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the Indian economist, philosopher, and public intellectual, in a scathing interview published in the “New Yorker”, expresses his disdain for Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He believes that Modi, especially after winning reelection this year again, appears intent on cementing Hindu rule, while IoK, which has faced decades of brutal occupation, is now under strict martial law, with reports of torture and extralegal detention. Sen has often criticized Modi’s sectarianism and has said that his government has “taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction” on poverty and health care. The renowned academic withdrew his nomination for a second term as the Chancellor of Nalanda University, in Bihar as a mark of protest. The learned intellectual minces no words, when he states that today, in India, everything is dominated by a hard-nosed, hard-Hindutva thinking. He observes that the BJP government cannot chastise a Muslim for eating beef. He argues that the ancient Sanskrit documents, like the Vedas, also do not prohibit the eating of beef.
As Indian Air Force received the first batch of Rafael fighter aircraft from France, India’s Defence Minister made belligerent threats to Pakistan, former Chief Justice and Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju warned India that it should not rejoice. The outspoken Justice Markandey Katju, who labels Indian Army as a fake army, gave a reality check to his own countrymen to desist from adventurism against Pakistan since the latter is a nuclear power and if attacked, Pakistan has the capability of the total annihilation of India.
It is now clear that providence is coming into play. By adopting the extreme action in IoK, Narendra Modi tried to divert the attention of his own countrymen from his failing fiscal policies. Reports emanating from Indian media eg the “Economic Times” story of 3 October 2019 ‘Rs 1,00,000 crore gone in 5 days! How much more pain in store for bank stocks?’ tells the whole story of the impending financial crisis. After the failure of 16 Banks due to Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) Indian Stock Market crashed with a loss of 42 percent in capitalization. It is ironical that India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval rushed to Saudi Arabia to seek aid to save ’Reliance’. Indian economy is rapidly rushing towards complete collapse as it will have knock down domino effect on its biggest Lenders and Trading Partners, which could end up like the ‘Bhat’ Crisis in Thailand in 1997. Definitely Modi has bit off more than he can chew.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.
