December 2, 2019
Lockdown in Kashmir Continues
By Syed Rifaquat Ali
The BJP government announced overnight without any debate in the parliament the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir on August 5, inviting a huge protest in Kashmir and condemnation throughout the country.
The State was split in two Union territories, three former chief ministers were put under house arrest, thousands of people arrested and a great number of them put in jail outside Kashmir, women and girls abused, children brutally tortured, schools closed, shops shut, curfew imposed, all internet channels and communication facilities cut off, media gaged, free movement curtailed and political leaders, media men and foreign newsmen banned from entering Kashmir.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in Srinagar to assess the situation in Kashmir, was sent back to New Delhi from the airport.
Leader of the Opposition in the parliament, Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Kashmiri, sought the permission of Supreme Court to visit Kashmir. He was granted conditional permission.
But the European Union parliamentarians were permitted to visit Kashmir which was a PR exercise on behalf of prime minister Narender Modi, and nothing but a sham. It is now four months and the situation is status quo by and large in Kashmir. But Narender Modi says that "everything is fine in Kashmir."
It seems that Modi has lost sense since he is surrounded by a plethora of problems: no jobs for millions of youths, farmers are frequently committing suicide, GDP has declined to 4.5 per cent, agriculture has taken a beating, thousands of big and small business houses have closed after demonetisation and imposition of GST, industries are in economic distress, and worst of all the communal rhetoric of BJP leaders have
created a sense of fear among the minorities and backward classes.
Even such organizations as the Income-tax, central bureau of investigation, the reserve bank of India, the election commission, the judiciary, the police departments and so on are working at the behest of BJP government. India has been the world's fastest growing economy, but the instability of late in the country has completely slowed down the progress.
So much so that the mouthpiece of BJP, Dr.Subramanian Swamy says that " the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman does not know economics," which is the cause of economic distress.
Narender Modi keeps weaving a labyrinth of vague metaphysics, overlooking the ground realities, which has stagnated the progress of India. In the midst of such a smudgy scenario, the Hindu-Muslim feud has assumed alarmingly dangerous proportion.
The Supreme Court verdict in the case of Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya in favour of Hindus for construction of Ram Temple has irked the Muslims for biased judgement, and Maulana Syed Arshad Rashidi, a legal heir of original Ayodhya land dispute has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against its ruling in favour of Ram temple at the disputed site.
With a multiple national problems India becomes the most complex and complicated country on this planet.
Regarding the Kashmir problem, the United Nations with 193-member countries, must intervene to alleviate the sufferings of Kashmiris. The UN, which came into being on October 24,1945, after the Second World War, has done precious little to safeguard the rights and freedom of people around the world.
The main purpose of the United Nations is to: 1. keep peace throughout the world. 2. Develop friendly relations among nations. 3. Help nations work together to improve the lives of the poor people to conquer hunger, disease and Illiteracy.4. be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations to achieve these goals.
The least Mr.Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, can do is to send his representatives to Kashmir to see the ground realities in order to save thousands of people from physical and mental torture.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is Sydney-based journalist.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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