The ever-belligerent India’s hostility in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) has surpassed all bounds of civility. India, as known to the whole world, has shamelessly geared up its acts of brutality in IOK. Only after the US President Donald Trump, while meeting the Prime Minister Imran Khan, disclosed that Modi had asked him to mediate and resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, that the Indian government made the scandalous move.
President Trump, without mincing his words, vociferously made the offer to PM Imran Khan to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. The US can bring lasting peace and stability not only to the two warring nations of the subcontinent, India and Pakistan but also to the entire region. The whole world stands testimony to this mediation offer made by the US president.
Not hard to imagine how India would react to President Trump’s offer for mediation on Kashmir? Indian reaction to Trump’s mediation offer did not take too long to come to the fore. It came immediately. It was, as expected, extraordinarily vehement and oafish. The Indian government did not take a second to falsify US President Donald Trump’s explicit declaration that during one of his recent meetings Indian premier Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate between India and Pakistan to settle the Kashmir dispute.
India’s backtracking on its utterances and commitments are known to the whole world. It profoundly lacks the moral courage to stand by what it says. India’s about-turn vis-à-vis the US President’s claim that the Indian Premier had asked him to mediate on the Kashmir issue is a glaring example of India’s odious attitude of backtracking, particularly in matters of immense international significance.
Having said all that, one, after the revocation of the Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution by Modi and his associates in the Indian parliament is now compelled to think what transpired between Modi and US President Donald Trump in the meeting they had. Did Modi seek the US President’s mediation on the Kashmir issue, or was it something else he discussed with him and sought his support for? From what India has now barefacedly and unlawfully done by nullifying the special status of Indian held Kashmir, in complete disregard of to the UN Resolution of 1948 on occupied Kashmir, it can be concluded that Indian premier Modi in his meeting with US President Donald Trump did not seek his mediation on the Kashmir issue. He discussed his ill-motivated and well-thought-out plan to nullify the special status of Indian Occupied Kashmir by revoking the decades-old Article 370 and 35-A, which gave a measure of autonomy to the disputed Muslim-majority region, through a presidential decree. To be more specific, the scrapped law granted special status to Indian-administered Kashmir.
If my assertions regarding the issue being debated in this critique are by any means incorrect, let those who asserted that the Indian Premier actually solicited US’ mediation on Kashmir come to the fore immediately and confirm or deny the factual position on the matter. None but the US President Donald Trump could do so for obvious reasons. The US government, which is silent on the unlawful measure the Indian government has taken to invalidate the seven decades-old special status of IoK, must promptly respond to the situation. It must ask the Indian government to immediately restore the special status of IoK granted to it under Article 370 and 35-A. If the US, for some reason, fails to do so, not only Pakistan but the entire world would be constrained to consider that Narendra Modi, in total defiance of all norms of international law, has the blessings of US President Trump and his government.
Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) has been burning since the past over seven decades. The civilised world is not oblivious of the atrocities that India continues to commit on the innocent people of Kashmir brazenly. It factually has no parallel in world history. The powers that be, in particular, and the entire civilised world, in general, must not only condemn India’s brutal atrocities in occupied Kashmir in the strongest terms but also persuade the Indian government to immediately restore the special status granted to the occupied territory under the articles referred above.
Pakistan must seek resolution of the long-pending Kashmir issue through the UN Resolution of 1948 that emphasises resolution of the Kashmir problem through the grant of right to self-determination to the browbeaten people of Kashmir. It must not lose a moment to expose India’s highhandedness and commission of heinous crimes in Kashmir. It must proactively raise the issue on all international forums. It must launch a robust diplomatic offensive; knock the doors of the United Nations and the powers that be to resolve the matter instantly. Every possible endeavour to mobilise strong world support in favour of Kashmiri people should be topmost on Pakistan’s agenda.
