October 13, 2020
Kashmiris seek China’s help to restore special status of Kashmir
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Congress president Farooq Abdullah has expressed hope that special status of Kashmir will be restored with the help of China.
In an interview with India Today on Sunday, Abdullah said that the Modi government’s move to abrogate Article 370 which granted special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir, had angered China and the recent standoff at Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a result of that.
"Whatever they are doing at LAC in Ladakh is all because of the abrogation of Article 370, which they never accepted. I am hopeful that with their support, Article 370 will be restored in J&K," Abdullah told India Today.
Tellingly, Indian defense analyst Pravin Sawhney has also said that Chinese are not happy with Indian government’s move on August 5, 2019 to integrate the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir and also declaring Ladakh as an Indian Union territory.
Pravin believes that India has violated the Wuhan Summit (2018) summit consensus that China and India will be friend and not adversary but since then India has joined the Indo-Pacific alliance which is against China and also joined the anti-China Quad group of the United States, Australia, and Japan.
At the same time, Pravin added, India had ignored the Chinese proposal during the the second India-China informal summit, in Chennai, India when Chinese President Xi Jinping had shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi his vision for trilateral cooperation among Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad.
Interview with The Wire
Going back to Abdullah’s statement about China, this is not the first time when Abdullah had made such remarks.
In an interview with The Wire last month, he said that the Kashmiris felt like ‘slaves’ in India and they would rather have the Chinese rule over them.
Farooq Abdullah told The Wire that at this moment the Kashmiri people do not feel and do not want to be Indian. He even went so far as to say that they would rather be ruled by the Chinese.
Abdullah, who had been the most prominent ‘pro-India’ face in Jammu and Kashmir for the past four decades, also described the Kashmiris as slaves who were being treated like second class citizens.
In a 44-minute interview to The Wire, Abdullah said it was complete rubbish for the Bharatiya Janata Party to claim that the people of Kashmir have accepted the August 2019 changes just because there have been no protests.
He said if the soldiers on every street and Section 144 were to be lifted, people will come out in their tens of lakhs.
Abdullah told The Wire that the new domicile law was intended to flood the Valley with Hindus and create a Hindu majority. He said this has further embittered the Kashmiri people.
Abdullah said that the National Conference and, in fact, all the other parties that had come together to issue the Gupkar Declaration of August 2019, which was reiterated on August 22 this year, were committed to restoring the dignity of Kashmiris. He said this meant reinstating Articles 370 and 35A and restoring statehood. He said he would fight for this – but always peacefully – till his last breath.
No resolution in Indian and Chinese military commanders’ talks
The former Chief Minister of Kashmir’s statement preceded a day of high-level failed military talks between China and India to defuse the standoff in Ladakh.
"Both sides agreed to maintain dialogue and communication through military and diplomatic channels, and arrive at a mutually acceptable solution for disengagement as early as possible," the two sides said in the joint statement after a 10-hour long talks.
So far there has been no sign of a troop pullback even though winter is approaching and the area is considered uninhabitable, Reuters said.
According to Foreign Affairs, there are still major gaps between the two sides, and neither India nor China has shown any willingness to reduce their significant military presences along the Line of Actual Control.
New Delhi is under some pressure from Washington, the Foreign Affairs said adding:
U.S. officials are skeptical that dialogue can resolve the dispute and have blamed China’s activity in the region as the source of the issue. “The Chinese Communist Party’s territorial aggression is apparent on its Indian border where China has attempted to seize control of the line of actual control by force,” U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday. “The time has come to accept that dialogue and agreements will not persuade or compel the People’s Republic of China to change.”
But regardless of how the United States reacts to the latest round of talks, India’s tensions with China have brought Washington and New Delhi closer together, the Foreign Affairs concluded.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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