Suppression of Kashmiri people’s anger at the loss of special status is what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is busy in at the moment. According to reports, the forces have detained more than 500 people including politicians, activists, business leaders and professors. The BJP government thinks that by putting the region on lockdown for some time will help in bringing normalcy to the situation in the area; but in this, the Indian government is wrong.

Moreover, the BJP leadership thinks that detaining people in hundreds will help it in controlling the anger of ordinary Kashmiris. However, the Indian government cannot be more wrong if it feels so. The BJP decision to revoke the special status of the valley has made Kashmir a volcano waiting to erupt.

While the Indian government is busy in maintaining a complete media blackout of the vale, it is unable to calm the Kashmiris. As the Indian government took the Kashmiris off the guard by changing the status of Kashmir, the Kashmiris will do the same to the Indian government. And if the Indian government thinks that crackdowns will help it to contain Kashmiris’ anger, then it is one of the most foolish governments of all times.

Kashmiris like Palestinians will fight the settler-colonial project that India is aiming for by revoking the Articles 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution. People who know no tiring while struggling against colonialism and occupation are no one else but the Kashmiris. The last thirty years – witness to more than a hundred thousand sacrifices of Kashmiris with their blood – tell us many tales: an epic of bravery; a show of courage; a story of perseverance; fight for justice. Even though India ruled the valley with a reign of terror and it will continue to rule similarly, Kashmiris will fight the Indian occupation by any means necessary.

All these years, the world has known India as a coward actor that relies on brute force against unarmed protesting Kashmiris. All these years, the Indian brutalities directed against innocent civilians inform the global community that India is a sham democracy. BJP’s policies are metamorphosing India in a Hindu fascist state. India has shown the world that it cannot stand against unarmed protestors.

Mirza Waheed, a Kashmiri author and political commentator, says that one of the many ways a repressive state aims to suppress and control people is to first make them powerless, then show, dramatise, their powerlessness by subjecting them to daily indignities. However, all these ways of suppressing and controlling people have proven inadequate in defeating the spirit of Kashmiris to fight against the illegal and unlawful actions of India.