Responding to a tweet of US Vice President
Hon Vice President, Kamala Devi Harris:
YOU are spot on Madam Vice President in stating: “When talking about Roe v.Wade, court case we need to discuss the right to self-determination: the ability of an individual to make their own decisions about their life and future”.
For the benefit of the readers, I deem it pertinent to briefly state as to what the Roe v.Wade case was all about. “The Roe v.Wade, 410 U.S.113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S.
Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction”.
While sincerely acknowledging your down to the core apt observation, vis-à-vis Roe v.Wade US Court case, made in your tweet of June 13, may I please take the liberty of emphasizing that this profoundly vital humane policy concerning “right to self-determination” shouldn’t remain confined to individuals only.
It should be equally altruistically and assertively applied particularly to the subjugated nations of the world.
Madam Vice President, the persecuted people of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), who continue to face unparalleled human rights abuses and brutalities at hands of the ruthless Indian forces, since the past over seven decades, have been relentlessly pleading to the powers that be and the UN to prevail on India and compel it to grant them the right to self-determination, in accordance with the UN Resolution of 1948 on Jammu and Kashmir, but to no avail.
Am I not justified Madam Vice President in raising my voice for the almost 14 million tyrannised people of India- occupied Jammu and Kashmir?
Is it not germane to urge the US and its staunch allies in particular, and the world nations in general, to rise above self-interest and prevail on India to settle this issue of profound significance not only to the awfully repressed freedom seekers of IOJK, but also to world peace?
How very sad it is that the civilized world, particularly the powers that be, continue to turn a blind eye to the unparalleled human rights abuses and atrocities the barbaric Indian forces are so audaciously committing against innocent men, women and children in the occupied territory, at the behest of the incumbent fascist Indian government
I am aware that all my past endeavours to jolt the conscience of the world community vis-à-vis the extremely vital Kashmir conundrum, through my writings, didn’t bear any fruit.
But this never discouraged, and will never ever discourage me from raising my voice for the brazenly brutalized people of India-occupied Kashmir.
Being completely in consonance with your views so aptly articulated by you in your tweet of June 13, Madam Vice President I am, once again, earnestly urging the US and its allies, and the UN in particular, and the world community in general to exercise its influence on India to grant right to self-determination to the people of occupied Kashmir, and work in unison to resolve the long-pending Kashmir problem expeditiously.
Needless to say, the sooner this profoundly grave issue is resolved the better it would be for the establishment of peace not only between the two recognised South Asian nuclear powers — India and Pakistan, but also in the region.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
