Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi
THE Indian Administration of Jammu and Kashmir has lifted a requirement set in place by a 1971 circular under which Indian security forces had to obtain a special certificate in order to acquire land in the disputed region. The order allows “Indian Army, Border Security Force, paramilitary forces and similar organisations” to acquire land without a “no objection certificate” (NOC) clearance from the region’s Home Department. While the obvious Hindu-nationalist motivations behind the integration of Kashmir are quite clear to see, the imposition of full-time curfew in the Vale is indicative of the fact that India has lost its natural writ in Kashmir. Modi’s regime is pushing India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) into a no man’s land.
In an order issued by the Indian United Territory Revenue Department on July 24, the J&K Administration said, “In view of the extension of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 to the UT, the circular dates 27.08.1971, which prescribed obtaining of No Objection Certificate from the Home Department for acquisition/requisition of land in favour of Army, BSF/CRPF and similar organisations is hereby withdrawn. The latest order issued by the region’s Revenue Department, cites the extension of the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to the Jammu and Kashmir region. In view of the Act’s extension, the circular requiring a No Objection Certificate from the Home Department for acquisition/requisition of the land “in favour of Army BSF/CRPF and similar organizations” is withdrawn, said the order.
Perse, the major purpose of the said law is to facilitate the process of demographic changes in the Vale. “It simply means that in the so-called notified “strategic areas”, within existing armed forces land, the responsibility of ensuring that construction activities are undertaken as per the developmental control regulation of the master plan and all environmental safeguards are observed, has been delegated to the Armed Forces themselves, “the spokesman said. Yet the political parties alleged that notifying ‘strategic areas’ was an attempt to unrecognisably alter the destiny of the people of Kashmir and construction activities in strategic areas is a ruse to allow demographic change.
Last year, the Indian Army went to court. In its status report, the government informed the court that the matter was placed before the Chief Secretary, and a decision was taken allowing a location to be declared a “strategic area” for “direct operational and training requirements of armed forces”. “The amendments will pave the way for notifying certain areas as strategic areas in terms of requirements of the armed forces and in such areas, the regulation of construction activity shall be through a special dispensation,” an official statement said. On the pretext of security, the Centre is playing with Kashmiris’ fundamental rights.
The core of the devil’s advocacy is to convert the 2.5 million residents of Jammu and Kashmir from majority-Muslim to majority-Hindu. The BJP forcefully advocates for in-migration of Hindus to the state. And now there is no legal barrier to a full-bore program of government-sponsored in-migration. Such a move is tantamount to complying the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist agenda of redefining India not as a multi-religious secular state, but as a Hindu Rashtra. A South Asian American expert, Michael Kugleman rightly said last year: “The repeal of Article 370 is a big manifestation of Hindu nationalism, as it represents an effort to bring India’s only Muslim-majority region into the union of India so that the nation’s Hindu majority can invest, acquire land there, and so on.”
Per the most recent, 2011 census, Muslims are a majority in what was the Jammu and Kashmir state: They constitute 68.31% of the population. Muslims are the majority in 17 out of 22 districts. Hindus, who make up 28.44% of the total population overall, represent a majority in four out of 22 districts. However, there is a significant district- and sub-district-level variation. While Jammu Division is majority Hindu, it has three districts with Muslim majorities (Poonch, Rajouri and Doda) and three districts have very large Hindu majorities (Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur). The Division of Kashmir has six districts (Kupwara, Baramulla, Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama and Anantnag) with Muslim majorities in excess of 90%. Ladakh has two districts: Muslim-majority Kargil and Buddhist-majority Leh.
Undeniably, Ladakh‘s Buddhist community has leaned its cultural bonds towards China’s Tibet. The Ladakh Hill Council is struggling for the preservation of its cultural identity. Nonetheless, it seems that Modi’s Hindutva— would have responded unilaterally regardless—albeit perhaps not without as much force (as some Hindu militants have entered the Vale) —to artificially induct the Hindu citizenry in the Vale via transmogrifying the natural population statics of the Vale as New Delhi remains engaged in changing the status quo on the ground.
The UAPA media law is a draconian move to harass the journalists in Kashmir. A group of eminent jurists, academics, former civil servants and officers from the defence services, from across the country, including many hailing from J&K calling themselves The Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir has in its first report covering the period August 2019-July 2020 found the economic, social and political impact of these actions, and their long duration – eleven months thus far disastrous. The former Chief Minister of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoJK) Mehbooba Mufti accused New Delhi of heightening security and surveillance “to ensure that anger and frustration felt by people here remain hidden”.
Pakistan is a cardinal supporter of the Kashmiri right to self-determination. Islamabad’s observance of Youm-e-Istehsal is an index of our Kashmir policy. Pakistan’s civil and military leadership is committed to extending our principle support for the Kashmiri cause of freedom from the Indian tutelage. The redrawing of Pakistan’s political map in which I0k is an affiliated part of the Pakistani territory is a move of political correctness. The case of Kashmir has gained global popularity. For the international civil society Modi’s fascist-cum-ultranationalist regime in Kashmir is intolerable. The UNSC must play its due role for the prevention of this imploding South Asian conflict.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law.
