September 11, 2019

Hoodwinking the United Nations

Syed Rifaquat Ali

It does not behove any member-country to hoodwink the United Nations in an uproarious situation. During the UN Human Rights Council debate on Kashmir imbroglio, the Indian representative Vijay Thakur Singh, secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, said on September 10 at the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the abrogation of Article 370 and 35a in Kashmir was a collective decision of the BJP government.

"These decisions were taken by our parliament after a full debate that was televised and enjoyed widespread support. We wish to reiterate that the sovereign decision, like other legislations passed by parliament, is entirely internal to India. No country can accept interference in its internal affairs, certainly not India," Vijay Thakur Singh said.

This is all lies and bullshit. Indian leaders are habitual liars and Vijay Thakur Singh is no exception. When and where was the debate in the Indian parliament to abrogate Article 370 and 35a? Congress leader in the Lok Sabha (lower house), Kapil Sibal spoke vociferously and pleaded with the speaker, Om Birla, that it is most inappropriate not to have any debate in the parliament to abrogate Article 370 and 35a in Kashmir.

The entire opposition members acquiesced with Kapil Sibal while the members of the ruling party made grimaces. In the case of demonetisation of 1000 and 500 currency notes too, the BJP never took the opposition into confidence and took overnight decision which caused havoc to the Indian economy.

The same was the case with GST and the result has been disastrous. Millions of people have lost jobs in various fields and business organisations are shut.

These are just a slew of examples to prove that what Vijay Thakur Singh asserted in context of Kashmir issue before the UNHRC is far from the truth.

Pakistan representative, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was forthright in saying that life in Kashmir is not normal and communication channels totally muzzled. "India is trying to give an impression to the world that life has returned to normalcy (in Kashmir). If the life has returned to normalcy, then why don't they allow you, the international media, the NGOs, civil society organisations to go into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and see for themselves what the reality is," Qureshi told reporters after his address at the UNHRC.

It is more than a month and thousands of people are under house arrest  or banned from free movement, and there is simmering discontent among the people. People have lost patience and say enough is enough. As one protester said: the only option left is ' every Kashmiri should pick up a gun' for a bloody fight against the Indian forces.

While the situation is getting pretty volatile and explosive in Kashmir, the BJP government  is pursuing an Ostrich Policy which is in no way sagacious to tackle the seventy-year-old problem. UN must step in to ensure that things calm down between the two nuclear-power nations, India and Pakistan, for the good of the people.

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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