The madness stirred up in the wake of Pulwama incident by the Modi government which has manifested itself in Hindu mobs attacking Muslim localities in Jummu and burning several properties and incidents of harassment of Muslim students in Haryana and Dehradun, are very dangerous portents in regards to what the Muslim communities in IHK and India are likely to face in the days to come. The efforts to foment anti-Muslim feelings, holding Pakistan responsible for the attack immediately after the attack without any proof, the decision to sever all cultural and commercial links with Pakistan and the threats of retaliatory action against her have an aura of a pre-planned conspiracy by Modi and his cohorts to gain political mileage in the ensuring elections which the party looked to be losing.
The foregoing proposition gains currency in view of the conclusions drawn by a Delhi based journalist Prem Shankar Jha in an article published in the Indian media. The journalist showing disapproval of the actions taken by the Modi government to orchestrate anti-Muslim feelings and continued repression in Kashmir besides holding Modi responsible for Gujarat riots which helped him to win elections remarked “Today with another far more crucial election only weeks away and his party on the skids, it is difficult not to conclude that Modi is trying to repeat history”. The journalist has also taken swipe at the opposition parties of India particularly Congress for buying and supporting the rhetoric unleashed by Modi government posing a question that should the opposition not have refrained from joining Modi’s chorus and asked why a Kashmiri youth should have decided to become a suicide bomber? His question impliedly suggests the indigenous nature of the freedom movement and a reaction to what Indian security forces have been doing in the Indian Held Kashmir, especially since the advent of Modi as the Indian Prime Minister. The journalists attributing motives to the deliberately unleashed Indian narrative observed “His verbal assault on Pakistan, his threats to retaliate at a time and place of army’s choosing and his withdrawal of all security protection from Hurriyet leaders are designed to harden Kashmiri alienation and raise tensions with Pakistan to a feverish pitch.”
It is noteworthy that India has been resorting to similar tactics in the wake of such incidents in the past without ever coming forth with any incriminating evidence and has used them to malign Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism notwithstanding the fact that it was herself guilty of state terrorism in IHK and Pakistan through its agents like Kalbhushan Jadhav. This time however, it has upped the ante and created a very dangerous situation. Pakistan on the other hand wants to avoid any ugly situation that could lead to armed conflict between the two nuclear powers, a stance that stems from its commitment to peaceful coexistence and resolution of disputes through dialogue. That is why foreign minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi has written to the UN Secretary General about the snowballing situation and its permanent representative at the UN Maleeha Lodhi has also met the UN Secretary General and President of the Security Council for their intervention in the matter to de-escalate the mounting tensions in the region.
Prime Minister Imran Khan while offering dialogue to India has also rightly indicated the implications of an armed conflict by saying that it was easy to start it but nobody could predict and control its consequences. Former Chief Minister of IHK Mehbooba Hashmi commenting on the confrontation being whipped by the Indian government has said that only a fool could think of war in the modern times adding that her party had made an alliance with BJP on the commitment of dialogue with Pakistan.
It was therefore incumbent upon the UN responsible for promoting and maintaining world peace to take notice of the Indian belligerence and adventurism and act to defuse the situation instead of merely urging the two countries to observe restraint and offering mediation if desired by them. The ambience of animosity between India and Pakistan stems from the Kashmir dispute. The current situation is a reminder to the dangers lurking on the horizon and the urgency in removing the real cause of confrontation between the two countries i.e the resolution of the Kashmir conundrum in conformity with the UN resolutions. Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of the partition and there are three parties to the dispute people of Kashmir, Pakistan and India. The only way to resolve the dispute is to implement the UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite and creation of congenial ambience for them through dialogue between the parties backed and initiated by the UN.
India is also well advised in her own interest to refrain from acting as a war-like state and recognize the ground realities and her obligations in regards to Kashmir. There is no way it can subdue the freedom movement in Kashmir which is gaining momentum by every passing day notwithstanding daily killings of Kashmiri youth by the Indian security forces and blatant violation of human rights. The world community, particularly the US also needs to remove blinkers from her eyes to see the brewing storm in Indian Held Kashmir and try to put her weight behind the efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute instead of trying to toe the Indian line for the sake of its commercial and strategic interests.
