Al Jazeera has reported that India is holding event in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir “to claim that its 2019 scrapping of partial autonomy brought peace and development”.
The Al Jazeera report published on Wednesday said , “In the years since New Delhi brought Indian-administered Kashmir [IIOJK] under its direct con-trol, the [Modi] government has pushed a series of laws and policies that Kashmiris in the valley say are aimed at undermining their struggle for the right to self-determination of their future.”
India claims the G20 event will boost the re-gion’s tourism industry as it plans to take the dele-gates for a tour of the picturesque Himalayan valley.
“Srinagar, the region’s main city with 1.4 million residents, is getting a facelift for the event. Roads leading to the airport have been given a coat of tar and paint. Lampposts along the streets have been illuminated in orange, white, and green, the colours of India’s national flag.”
The security bunkers dotting the city have been painted in blue while the concertina wires that were seen all over one of the world’s most militarised regions have been removed in many places.”
“Schools, colleges and other government build-ings have been painted with a G20 logo, in which India has added a lotus, the election symbol of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”
A political analyst based in Kashmir told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity for fear of repri-sals by the Indian government, that “a sense of secu-rity in any place does not come with conferences”.—KMS
