As the U.S. Courts India, Nothing Changes
By Ghulam Nabi Fai
Sep/Oct 2024
Displaying a calculated and considered callousness and insensitivity to the Kashmiris’ wishes and aspirations, Indian Home [interior] of Minister Amit Shah announced (following a Supreme Court’s Dec 12, 2023 order) that “[The] Assembly poll will be held in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30, 2024” and that “BJP believes in winning hearts” (Ravi Krishnan Khajuria, Hindustan Times, April 16, 2024). The Indian Election Commission has proclaimed a two-phased parliamentary election schedule: in Jammu on April 26 and in the Srinagar constituency on May 13 in four phases. Chief Election Officer of J&K Hirdesh Kumar said on Aug. 17, 2022, that “We are expecting an addition of (2 to 2.5 million) new voters in the final list,” including non-Kashmiris living in the region (Reuters, Aug. 17, 2022).
Today, India confronts a Kashmir Rubicon in terms of electing members to its rubber stamp parliament. If it boldly conducts free, fair, and transparent elections that reflect the inhabitants’ genuine sentiments, then a final peaceful settlement of the 77-year-old conflict will be in sight. If it continues its habit of rigging elections and denying Kashmiri self-determination as proclaimed in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) January 1949 resolutions, then Kashmir will remain beleaguered by repression, misery, and destitution.
India’s colonial and antidemocratic ways in Kashmir have a long history. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said in 1964, “The high idealism of the Indian government in international matters breaks down completely when confronted with the question of Kashmir.”
Jayaprakash Narayan, known as “The Second Gandhi of India,” confided to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1960, “We profess democracy but rule by force in Kashmir… [The Kashmir] problem exists not because Pakistan wants to grab Kashmir, but because there is deep and widespread political discontent among the people” (“Why we must listen to Jayaprakash Narayan on Kashmir”, Ramachandra Guha, Sept. 26, 2016, Hindustan Times).
George Fernandes (d. 2019), a former Federal Minister of Kashmir Affairs, stated at Harvard University’s [now Weatherhead] Center for International Affairs on Oct. 12, 1990, “In so far as the immediate situation in Kashmir is concerned, I feel that we need to go back to 1984, when an elected government was dismissed by Delhi. The dismissal of the government sent [a] signal to the people of Kashmir that any honest decision that they take in regard to the governance of the State could easily be set aside by the power that is in Delhi. Naturally, the anger against Delhi built up. In 1987, there could have been a fair election. Unfortunately, there was not. A lot of people were roughed up. A lot of young people were subjected to considerable humiliation. The Kashmiris felt that Delhi would prevent for all times any expression of people’s will in a fair and objective election. All this created among the youth a sense of total despondency and alienation.”
Rigged Elections
P. K. Dave, a former Chief Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Government, confessed in 1991 that, “Elections in Kashmir have been rigged from the beginning.”
Booker Prizewinner Arundhati Roy remarked on Sept. 27, 2009, “Elections in Kashmir have had a long and fascinating past. The blatantly rigged state election of 1987 was the immediate provocation for the armed upsrising that began in 1990. Since then, elections have become a finely honed instrument of military occupation, a sinister playground for India’s deep state. It is Intelligence agencies more than anyone else who decide what the outcome of each election will be. After every election, the Indian establishment declares that India has won a popular mandate from the people of Kashmir.”
In his “Twenty Tumultuous Years Insights into Indian Polity,” Shri Prakash writes, “The Kashmiri anger actually began with the mass rigging of elections in 1987…” (p.568; Gyan Publishing House, 2003).
Amy Waldman wrote in the New York Times that “Rigged elections in Kashmir in 1987 helped trigger the armed uprising that India estimates has taken more than 35,000 lives” (Aug. 24, 2002).
The 1987 fraudulent elections extinguished the Kashmiris’ last flicker of hope that India would bow to the UNSC prescribed free and fair plebiscite.
The cure for counterfeit elections is providing genuine democratic articles. Thus, the Kashmiris are eager to participate in the referendum if it’s conducted with the trapping of free and fair choice, monitored, and supervised by a “neutral” agency like the UN.
The status of East Timor was resolved in 1999 by a free and fair vote of the population. The same, championed by the U.S. and the E.U. happened in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Southern Sudan. The solution to Kashmir’s indigenous upheaval is no different. The irresponsible coveting of dignity, liberty, and pride that comes with self-determination knows no territorial or regional boundaries.
The UNSC Resolution 122 of 1957 denounced the Indian elections subterfuge, reminding the concerned governments and authorities “of the principle embodied in its resolution that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the peoples’ will expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under UN auspices.
The resolution further elaborated that “the convening of a Constituent Assembly … and any action that Assembly may have taken or might attempt to take to determine the future shape and affiliation [of Kashmir]” would be no surrogate for Kashmiri self-determination.
The following steps need to be taken to make a referendum happen:
First, demilitarizing the state on either side of the ceasefire line.
Second, creating an atmosphere of peace and security.
Third, annulling all draconian laws, especially the Domicile Law, which is designed to change the state’s demography.
Fourth, releasing all political prisoners, including Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam Bhat, Aasia Andrabi, Khurram Parvaiz, and others immediately and unconditionally.
Fifth, restoring the rights of peaceful association, assembly. and demonstrations.
Sixth, permitting the Kashmiri political resistance leadership to travel abroad without hindrance,
Seventh, satisfying the democratic principles, rule of law, and security for every Kashmiri, irrespective of religious affiliation.
Eighth, deputing an international and neutral team to conduct the referendum.
Kashmir’s suffering is a rebuke to the UN for its inaction. This decades-long situation is a call on the conscience of the UNSC’s members, particularly in the U.S.
A sincere and serious effort toward devising a just settlement must face and deal with the realities of the situation and fully respond to the people’s rights. Indeed, any process that ignores their wishes and is designed to sidetrack the UN will prove to be not only an exercise in futility, but also a source of incalculable human and political damage.
Ghulam Nabi Fai is secretary general, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Washington, D.C. and chairman of the World Forum for Peace & Justice. He can be reached at [email protected], and www.kashmirawareness.org.
[Editor’s note: No sources were provided for some of the quotations, and therefore IH was unable to verify their accuracy.]
Tell us what you thought by joining our Facebook community. You can also send comments and story pitches to [email protected]. Islamic Horizons does not publish unsolicited material.