New Delhi’s extra-constitutional and illegal act of abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution six years ago, which granted special status to occupied Kashmir, is now threatening regional peace and stability. The four-day war between India and Pakistan in May this year testifies that New Delhi has not been able to come to terms with the imbroglio in the occupied territory, and its tall claims of restoring normalcy are no more than a hoax.
On August 5, Pakistan observed the ‘Day of Exploitation’ to reaffirm its solidarity with Kashmiris. The country reaffirmed its commitment to UN-backed right to self-determination and political and human rights of over 15 million Kashmiris languishing under Hindutva-driven rule.
Pakistan once again made the world realise that resolution of the longstanding dispute is essential and will remain a cornerstone of its foreign policy. The political posturing on August 5, driven by the RSS’s ideology of hate and segregation, has dealt a severe blow to regional peace and the rights of the Kashmiri people. Subsequent measures — such as altering demography, granting millions of domiciles to non-residents and economically marginalising the locals — are what the so-called democratic India represents today.
The day must solicit the civilised world’s attention towards the detention of hundreds of Kashmiris, and the ‘cordon and search’ operations that are a new normal in the dispute region under Delhi’s rule. It is irksome to note that New Delhi does not even trust its own political edifices in the occupied valley, and that the local political forces there too are in a quandary. That the occupied Kashmir is being treated as a colony goes without saying.
It stands as a shameful indictment of India’s acclaimed credentials of secularism and its image as a “shining” democracy. India, rather than endeavouring to browbeat Pakistan on flimsy contexts, as it did in the case of Pahalgam, must rescind its August 5 acts and talk it out with Islamabad for a perpetual bilateral solution.
