Debate on Kashmir issue unsettles India

India's unilateral decision to revoke the Article 370 on August 5, 2019 in held J&K was illegal under the international law. It was followed by unmatched restrictions on movement and communications in held Valley while fundamental freedoms and liberties were seized and human rights defenders were targeted. Paratap Bhannu Mehta, an Indian columnist, admitted in a comment in the Indian Express: “On August 5, 2019, the republic of India was supposed to have brought the bright light of Indian constitutionalism to Kashmir. Instead, it has created an even more ominous darkness. The light of Indian constitutionalism is itself dimming.” That is why the discussion on Kashmir issue irks India whenever and wherever it takes place. When in an unprecedented development, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom recently held a debate on the “critical situation” in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), rejecting the “argument that Kashmir is an internal matter of New Delhi”, the Indian government became extremely upset. New Delhi expressed its dismay at some of the parliamentarians who participated in the debate on Kashmir, relying on “false assertion” and unsubstantiated allegations propagated by a “third country” – an apparent reference to Pakistan.

The debate on IIOJK, proposed by Labour MP Sarah Owen, saw all parliamentarians in agreement “to hold the Indian government accountable for its abusive behaviour, especially in the Kashmir Valley”. They also hoped that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is due to make a visit to India at some point, will raise the IIOJK issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seek his reassurance that “all is being done to seek a permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute”.

The MPs were blunt with honest criticism. “You don’t have to be a Kashmiri to care about their struggle for self-determination, their struggle to live safely and their struggle to live freely,” MP Owen said. She drew the attention of the house towards the barbarism of Indian troops in the occupied territory, saying there are numerous reports of Kashmiri women and girls being molested. “Senior officials in the Indian government have put on record their intentions to make Kashmiri women a part of this conflict.”

Meanwhile, MP John Spellar said, “India is a huge country with an incredible history and also limitless potential but that doesn't mean we should not hold the Indian government to account for its abusive behaviour, especially in the Kashmir Valley. We also reject this argument that Kashmir is an internal matter of India.”

Spellar added: “India is trying to change the demography of Kashmir by amending the domicile law which is against the fourth Geneva Convention.”

MP James Daly, who is also a lawyer, said, “We have thousands of our fellow citizens who are from a Kashmiri background and have family members there, who are impacted and affected by their [Indian troops] acts on a daily basis.

“I, as a lawyer, have got a long list of human rights abuses... things like detention without trial. There are people in IIOJK who have been waiting 15 years for a trial, 15 years! There is no word from the international community in this respect.”

Another MP Sara Britcliffe said that she went to the Line of Control and was able to witness firsthand account of the situation, as “my constituents have been telling me for a long time of these, [which] are truly heartbreaking stories to hear. We are in the 21st Century and we need to be doing something about IIOJK, which is the most militarised zone in the world.”

MP Robbie Moore pointed out that Kashmiris had been living under heavy lockdown since August 5, 2019, when the special status of IIOJK was revoked by India. “We should be clear about what these lockdowns actually mean. No, foreign journalists being allowed into Kashmir by the Indian government and thousands of people being arrested under black laws.”

More unsettling for the Modi government was suggestion by Conservative MP James Daly that the UK government, “working with our European partners with President-elect Biden in America”, to come up with “an international programme through the UN that will give hope to those poor people in Kashmir.”

Importantly, Shadow foreign minister Stephen Kinnock suggested Britain should send its own delegation to J&K and report back to the UK Parliament. The MPs raised concerns about the continuing lockdown and Internet restrictions in J&K, as well as allegations of rapes, detentions without trial, unexplained and uninvestigated deaths, disappearances, curfews, communications blackouts, and mass arrests.

Understandably, Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his reaction said that the debate on Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) earlier in the week in the British parliament had made it clear that “Kashmir is not India’s internal issue.” Qureshi said in a statement that contrary to India’s portrayal of Kashmir as its internal issue, British parliamentarians had made clear that the issue was in fact a globally recognised dispute that had been addressed through several resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. He termed the development in the UK as “success of Pakistan’s diplomatic approach” and a “source of encouragement for Kashmiris”, expressing confidence that such voices would further expose the “real face of India”.

No matter how hard it tries, New Delhi should realize the Kashmir issue is not going to die down.