- The world is taking risks with the BJP
While Indian security forces continue the killing-spree in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP government has taken yet another step to implement its agenda of consolidating its hold on the state and to change demographic realities. It has promulgated a law allowing Indian nationals to buy property and land in Indian-Occupied Kashmir. Notwithstanding the fact that Kashmir is a disputed territory whose fate is to be decided through a plebiscite held under the auspices of the UN, India repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on 5 August 2019 which gave Indian-Occupied Kashmir special status with the state having its own constitution and legislative assembly. It was followed by bifurcation of the state into two territories and their amalgamation into the Indian Union on 31 October 2019 through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019. It moved a step ahead by enacting the new domicile law to change the demographic features of the state.
All the foregoing actions of India are a blatant violation of international law, the UN resolutions on Kashmir, the fourth Geneva Convention and te decisions of the International Court of Justice. India has taken these steps with impunity as the international community and the UN have not reacted to these illegal actions by India as they should have.
India is actually emulating the Israeli model in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir. Like the Palestinian land, Kashmir is an occupied territory and not India’s integral part as claimed by her. This Indian stance was repudiated by the UN through her resolutions 91 and 122 in the 1950s when India, after promulgation of the state constitution by its constituent assembly of Indian-Occupied Kashmir declaring accession of Kashmir to India, started calling the state its integral part. This position has also been reiterated in three informal meetings of the UNSC held in the backdrop of the Indian actions in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir. The international community has also refused to accept the Indian narrative that what it did there was her internal matter.
If India is not stopped in her tracks and dissuaded from pursuing the policies dictated by the RSS ideology of Hindutva, it could consign the region to perennial instability which might also undermine the strategic and commercial interests of the USA and her allies. Greater responsibility however lies with the UN, which as a peace-promoting body is under obligation to take notice of these developments and initiating action for the implementation of the UNSC resolutions if it really believes that the solution to the Kashmir dispute must be found in accordance to the principles of the UN Charter and the relevant UN resolutions
All the foregoing measures taken by India are on the pattern of what Israel is doing in Palestine. The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal on one of two bases: that they are in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, or that they are in breach of international declarations. The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to Israeli settlements.
Numerous UN resolutions and prevailing international opinion hold that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are a violation of international law, including UN Security Council resolutions in 1979, 1980 and 2016. UN Security Council Resolution 446 refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention as the applicable international legal instrument, and calls upon Israel to desist from transferring its own population into the territories or changing their demographic makeup. 126 Representatives at the reconvened Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions in 2014 declared the settlements illegal as have the primary judicial organ of the UN, the International Court of Justice, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The foregoing resolutions of the UN though adopted in the context of the Israeli actions in the Palestinian territory, along with the fourth Geneva Convention, ICJ decisions and international law are equally applicable to similar situations elsewhere. They have universal application.
But it is regrettable to note that Israel has been defying the UN resolutions and also violating the Fourth Geneva Convention with the support of the US and her western allies. The situation in case of Indian action in Indian-Occupied Kashmir is also similar to the Israeli action in Palestine as here again the USA, as strategic partner of India, due to her role in ‘contain China’ policy along with its traditional partners, is looking the other way from the illegal actions of India and the atrocities being committed on the people of the occupied territory. This stance of the USA and her allies is encouraging BJP regime, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue with her defiance of the UN resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Convention, international law as well as the decisions of the International Court of Justice.
What the strategic partners of India conveniently overlook is that they are imperiling the peace and security of the region to protect their strategic and commercial interests at the cost of losing the high moral ground and their proclaimed humanitarian and peace-loving credentials. India is not only breaching the UN resolutions and the international law, but is also acting as a war-like state. Her hegemonic designs in the region and hostile posturing towards Pakistan and disputes with almost all her neighbours are ominous portents in regards to peace and security in the region.
India is flanked by two nuclear powers, China and Pakistan, against whom it harbours aggressive designs. Indian clashes with China in Ladakh, and its attack on Pakistani territory on 26 February last year, constitute ample proof of her aggressive designs. The attack on Pakistani territory, which cost India two planes and the capture of one of its pilots, could have easily led to a full-fledged war between the two nuclear powers. But the restraint shown by Pakistan and the intervention by some friendly countries saved it from turning into a cataclysmic situation.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been sounding a warning to the world community ever since his address to the UN General Assembly regarding Indian designs and the consequences of her actions in Indian-Occupied Kashmir. He has also persisted with that message on all the international forums, in his interaction with the world leaders, as well as in his interviews to the international media. He is right in likening the RSS ideology to Nazism which heaped unfathomable death and destruction on the world, particularly in the European continent. The world cannot afford yet another similar tragedy.
If India is not stopped in her tracks and dissuaded from pursuing the policies dictated by the RSS ideology of Hindutva, it could consign the region to perennial instability which might also undermine the strategic and commercial interests of the USA and her allies. Greater responsibility however lies with the UN, which as a peace-promoting body is under obligation to take notice of these developments and initiating action for the implementation of the UNSC resolutions if it really believes that the solution to the Kashmir dispute must be found in accordance to the principles of the UN Charter and the relevant UN resolutions.
