NEW YORK - The World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), a prominent Washington-based advocacy organization, has condemned India for the introduction of an “illegal” law in Jammu and Kashmir that would change the disputed state’s Muslim-majority status at a time when the world is busy grappling with the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement issued on Friday, the forum called the ‘Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Order, 2020’ “tendentious and politically motivated.”
Under it, the citizens of India will now be able to settle in and compete for jobs in the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The statement called the law a “wanton display of disregard for the aspiration of the Kashmiris that is aimed at constitutional entrenchment of a Hindu majoritarian agenda to dispossess the people of Kashmir.
“These cynical attempts to seize the opportunity and take advantage of the prevailing global circumstances are reflective of the toxic and fascist mindset of the Hindutva regime in New Delhi,” it said.
“With one voice,” WKAF said, “the Kashmiris across the globe have rejected these reprehensible attempts to change the demographic character of our nation, and resolved to counter India’s bigoted settler colonialism through peaceful resistance. “The United Nations must remind India of the disputed nature of the occupied territory, and the need to implement the UN Security Council Resolutions on the issue,” the statement said.
“The BJP rulers in New Delhi must be reminded that their actions are in direct conflict with the Geneva Conventions and international law,” it said. “The world community and the people of conscience must impress upon India that in a democracy, legitimacy flows only from the freely given consent of the governed.”