The United States wants New Delhi to quickly ease restrictions imposed in Kashmir, a senior official said Thursday, declaring President Donald Trump’s willingness to mediate to ease tensions between India and Pakistan over the territory. Trump met separately this week with both Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.
While Trump has forged a close bond with Modi, joining the Hindu nationalist at a massive rally on Sunday in Houston where the Indian leader boasted of his actions in Kashmir, a senior official said that the United States had concerns over the clampdown in the region. The truth is that Modi has managed to make official what has been unofficial Indian policy for decades now. Despite India’s promises made to the Kashmiri people over seven decades ago it will never allow a referendum in Kashmir to take place as it fears that the Muslim majority region will want either full independence or want to be a part of Pakistan.
This polarisation will undoubtedly be due to the nature of Indian politics, which has become more and more communal since the 1980s. But the BJP went one step further and fashioned itself into the saviour of Hinduism by destroying the Ayodha Masjid in 1992.This single action bore immense fruit and brought them to power for the first time in 1998. Since then they have been in power for 11 years out of 20, an astonishing feat in India where the Congress ruled basically unchallenged for five decades since its independence.
Essential to the policy of Modi was the revocation of Article 370, as manifested in its 2014 Election Manifesto. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was prime minister from 1998-2004, had based his Kashmir policy on three principles – Kashmiriyat (inclusive Kashmiri culture), Insaniyat (humanism) and Jamhooriyat (democracy)–but Mr Modi has paid no heed to these.
For his image of strong leadership Mr Modi has to project himself racially as Hindu supremacist. He had occupied Muslim majority Kashmir and made it torture house for the Muslim Kashmiris. The issue is-the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination and violation of UN Charter. The issue is gross violation of human rights. Torture is specifically prohibited under international law. We hate to say against the Prime Minister of a country we tend to regard as a friend of Bangladesh that Mr Modi is a dangerous man for human rights of other people.
We are glad that President Trump has offered help to solve the human crisis in Kashmir. It will be a great mistake if it is seen as a border dispute between Pakistan and India although Pakistan is under tremendous pressure within to save the Muslims of Kashmir from Hindu expansionism of Prime Minister Modi. His policy aggression in Kashmir is worrying for neighbouring countries including Pakistan. The extreme Hindu nationalism does not accept partition of India.
Mr Modi must be restrained from his overreacting inhuman ambition. He must be made to respect the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people by making him agree to hold a referendum as per UN resolution. The occupation of any people anywhere is not defensible under international law and from the consideration of world peace.
We also urge international community, especially under US President Trump, to play its part for helping peace and humanity in Kashmir.
