Saturday, December 28, 2019

Women of India - Poem by Badri Raina

Indian poet and writer Badri Raina praises the women of India who are in the forefront of the ongoing protests and political struggle against the brutal Hindutva regime of PM Modi.
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Women of India

By Badri Raina
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ZNet, December 27, 2019
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Sitting out the chilling night
At Shaheen Bagh, you lead
India’s second struggle for freedom,
shaming men who would come
But are held back by fright.
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Women of India, your resolve
Against tyranny once made,
Brooks no politic retreat.
Firm in mind, you are firm
On your freezing feet.
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A face of impish delight smiles
Upon you.
Tucked in his lungi, he seems to know
That you will defeat the guiles
Of the day’s defrauders,
As you did of colonial marauders.
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Those that worship the armed goddess
In the plush confines of temples
Now confront her in the flesh.
Looking at your sentient courage,
My defiant soul leaps out
Of my old age.
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To declare to my beleaguered nation
That the republic is safe
In your incandescent passion
Against a state of things where
Laws may accommodate
Subliminal hate.
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Indian women shout slogans during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the city of Guwahati on Saturday. | AP

Saturday, December 21, 2019

A comment on PM Modi's Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019


-- Nasir Khan

Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAB) goes against the fundamental principle of secularism in the Indian Constitution and democratic and non-sectarian values. There is no place of religious discrimination in a secular society that has the followers of many religions.

If people started discriminating against others on the basis of their religions then that will lead to social and political chaos in the whole of India.

The Hindutva fascists are creating conditions where they can set the militant Hindu mobs against Indian Muslims. That will lead to massacres and violence. This is a very dangerous and ill-chosen political course by the Chief of Hindutva forces who is the Prime minister of India now.

Sunday, December 08, 2019

The power of Hindutva fascism in India

--  Nasir Khan
In 1992, a large Hindutva fascist mob led by some extremist right-wing parties demolished the 15th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in full glare of publicity. One month later, Dr Shamsul Islam, an Indian academic, visited the site of the demolished mosque and the city of Ayodhya. He wrote his article based on what he saw and heard from the Muslim victims of large-scale pillage and destruction of their homes and properties in the city of Ayodhya by the anti-Muslim Hindutva militants and Hindu zealots.
In view of the Indian Supreme Court's verdict on 9 October this year, Dr Shamsul Islam has added his views on secularism in Indian state and society to his 1992 article. The highest court of the country had made an unprecedented travesty of justice and the rule of law.
The author's eye-view account helps us to understand the events in India where the Hindutva fascists with the help of some prominent politicians, police and civil authorities went on a rampage of the Ayodhya city where Muslims lived. The atrocities and barbarity of the Hindutva militants against the Muslim population of the city are horrifying.
The information given by the author is also important for political observers, writers and human rights activists to analyse the dangers of the extremist ideology of militant Hindutva, which is directed mainly against Indian Muslims, but it also extends to Christians, Dalits and other ethnic groups.
Now in the latest twist of events came the Supreme Court of India's verdict on the case relating to the site of the Babri Mosque. The verdict delivered on 9 October has stunned and shocked many people around the world. The age-old principles of the impartiality and non-sectarianism in applying laws of the land were thrown to the wind exactly as the Hindutva fascists wanted. The demands of the Muslim community for justice in a long-drawn judicial struggle for over 27 years for the site of the razed mosque were ignored.
In fact, the Supreme Court did as the Hindutva fascists wanted. The court also took the extraordinary step by ordering the central government to prepare a plan within three months for building a temple of Rama, a mythological Hindu king revered as a Hindu god by many Hindus on the site of the razed Babri Mosque. Thus the facade of Indian democracy, secularism and rule of law became vacuous words, while the power of the Hindutva received the full judicial backing by the highest court of India.
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https://www.hastakshepnews.com/what-criminals-could-not-achieve-on-december-6-1992-is-legitimized-by-court/?fbclid=IwAR39LF7Jhd5tm1fHBIPDY9qKTvkxB0l2SyAIsQ-tZsCuxndlZGN8haGS8xA
 What criminals could not achieve on December 6, 1992, is legitimized by Court

Babri masjid

What criminals could not achieve on December 6, 1992, is legitimized by Court


Shamsul Islam
{Dr. Shamsul Islam, Political Science professor at Delhi University (retired).}
The author visited Ayodhya one month after the demolition of Babri mosque by the RSS/Shiv Sena/BJP cadres. It presented a picture of carnage, devastation, criminal participation of the Indian State in it but also underlining of the fact that secularism was not dead in Ayodhya. But today, on the 27th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri mosque I am not so sure, specially after the Supreme Court judgment on November 9, 2019, handing over mosque site to those who had razed the mosque. The moral of the story is that whatever criminals could not achieve on December 6, 1992, is legitimized by the highest court of justice of India.

The short report is being produced in full, courtesy to The Sunday Times of India.

Shamsul Islam
December 6, 2019
{Dr. Shamsul Islam, Political Science professor at Delhi University (retired).}
Publication
Date: Jan 17, 1993

Publication Name: The Sunday Times of India, Delhi.

HUMAN LIFE BRICKS AND MUD IN AYODHYA

By Shamsul Islam
A visit to Ayodhya, more than a month after the December 6
tragedy, reminds one of the hunted city. It is a city under siege by
paramilitary forces. They are on high alert. What is to be guarded now? Nobody
knows. The deep wounds of carnage and plunder are still visible.

The walls of Ayodhya are still covered with sectarian war
cries in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, etc. The claims of the champions of
Hindutva,  that the police and military
are with them are still engraved on the walls of the city-mocking the secular
state.

You have to be in Ayodhya to realize that the tragedy was
far more than the demolition off a mosque. Away from Ayodhya, the only
dimension off the tragedy which we heard related to the demolition of a
structure of bricks and mud. We overlooked the human tragedy, the human carnage
and plunder caused by zealots of Dharma. Ayodhya symbolizes the fact that human
flesh is the cheapest commodity around.

While moving towards Ayodhya, you chance upon a refugee camp
just on the outskirts of the holy cit. It is being run at Badu Bua ki Masjid
(Old Aunt’s mosque), which houses an orphanage too. More than 1500 refugee,
males, females and children of all age groups are packed like sardines here. A
similar number of refuges have been sheltered in Quresh nursery camp in
Fazibad. Most of them are wage-earners, petty shopkeepers, vendors, cycle
repair walls, rickshaw-pullers and their dependents. They are being fed and
clothed through community donations. The state was gracious enough to donate
130 blankets.

Soul chilling: The stories of barbaric destruction and
sadistic killings are should-chilling. Everything which belonged to
approximately 4500 inhabitants belonging to the minority community in Ayodhya
was singled out to be burnt. The vandals at work had minute details of such
properties, assets and religious place. They were very methodical in destroying
properties.

Incidentally, the crusaders of Hindutva did not even spare a
“good Musalman” by the name of Husni Vilaiti Haider. Son of the big zamindar of
Ayodhya, he had led delegation of Muslims to Murli Manohar Joshi offering
themselves for kar seva some weeks back. He had also donated a large chunk of
land to the VHP trust for Ram Mandir. But these credentials did not apparently
wash. Hundreds of refugees are ready to vouch for the bitter truth that the
provincial police force was not a silent spectator. They actively joined the
kar sevak. The policy control room of Ayodhya was taken over by kar sevaks on
December 4 itself, they allege. The wireless sets were at their disposal.

Local Help: However, it is really heartening to know from
the terror-stricken refugees that local residents of Ayodhya were not involved
in any of these barbaric deads. In fact, dozens of local Hindus took all kinds
of risks to save Muslim neighbors.  Many
refugees acknowledge the help of one Yadav Pahalwan of Mohalla Shikhana. But by
December 3, most of such “bad elements” had been neutralized by kar sevaks
through threats, bashing and social boycott. Yadav Pehlwan was also taught a
lesson. He was attacked and injured.

You enter Ayodhya. Though day curfew was relaxed a couple of
days back, nobody seems to be around. After going around quite a few damaged
monuments, shops and houses, one comes across a big house, near from the
demolished Babri Masjid, which seems to have been “bombarded”. All walls
standing almost infact while all roofs have fallen. You prepare to take snaps.
Suddenly you see a middle aged women searching for something in the rubbles.
You are told that it was once here home.

Part of it was destroyed on December 5, on the 6th evening
it was plundered and on the forenoon of the 7th it was blasted with the help
off petrol bombs and chemicals.

The tasks was accomplished by the same group which was seen
demolishing the Babri Masjid the day before. It was led by a bearded chap who
used to command the group through a whistle. She also recounts that on December
7 she and her family members were rescued by the Hindu CRPF officer who hid
them in truck and took them to safety in Faizabad. She returned with her
teenage son to Ayodhya only on the 29th December and was the first family to do
so.

She is bewildered at the turn of events. But she is sure of
one thing – “Whatever may be hardships, we shall stay here. Let us see for how
long Congress and BJP keep on playing this game. We shall not leave. It is our
motherland. It is our home. Why should we go? It is not somebody’s freedom. It
is belongs to others, it belongs to us also. We were born here, we have lived
here and we will die here.”

There are others too who are returning to the heap of rubble
that had been their home, and that will hopefully be their home again.



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Thursday, November 28, 2019

Indian Supreme Court's questionable verdict on the Babri Mosque site

My interview on the Indian Supreme Court's verdict on the Ayodhya site of the Babri Mosque, which was demolished in 1992 by a large group of Hindu activists of the right-wing Hindutva organizations.

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https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980829000695&fbclid=IwAR1RmyoJoylZ6DkctyI3esDFzxLOCyTJIecg2N2Jo7Z_XPMSJd0pIOR64jE


Nasir Khan: Indian Top Court Ruling on Holy Site Political Judgment

Nasir Khan: Indian Top Court Ruling on Holy Site Political Judgment
TEHRAN (FNA)- Nasir Khan, a historian and political activist, says the verdict by the Indian Supreme Court to give the land of the Babri mosque in the Northern town of Ayodhya falls short of a legal pronouncement.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Nasir Khan said, “It was more of a political judgement, in which the difference between the perpetrators of a major crime and the aggrieved party was ignored completely and instead ordered thconstruction of a Hindu temple at the disputed site.”

Nasir Khan, PhD of Philosophy, is an author, historian and anti-war and human rights political activist. He has written numerous articles on human rights and international affairs.

Below is the full text of the interview:


Q: How do you find the verdict, especially amid many instances of sectarian violence?


A: From a historical point of view, many mythical heroes and gods were believed by people in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Assyria, etc. But with the passage of time, Egyptians stopped believing in many gods such as Osiris, Isis and the divine child Horus, among many others. In Greece the same thing happened: The old Olympian gods and heroes were replaced by other gods and mythologies. But in India ancient mythical stories continued to exist, and are still regarded as part of Hinduism by the followers of this religion. The Hindus who destroyed the Babri mosque believed in the myth of the birthplace of Rama. This brief account is essential to understand the mythical account of the life of god Rama that were tacitly accepted and supported by the Supreme Court in its verdict.

The verdict falls short of a legal pronouncement, based upon a judicious investigation of the evidence involved about the land where the mosque stood. It was more of a political judgement, in which the difference between the perpetrators of a major crime and the aggrieved party was ignored completely and instead ordered the construction of a Hindu temple at the disputed site. The court asked the central government to prepare a scheme within three months to enforce the order for the construction of the temple! The Muslims were to be given a five acres of land in Ayodhya, as if the dispute was merely one about the possession of a disputed piece of land. In this way, the goals of the Hindutva government of Modi and the Hindu extremists were given an endorsement by this unjust and lopsided judgement. It is amazing that the court did not mention or condemn the wanton destruction of the 500-year old mosque in the summary of the verdict.


The question of sectarian violence after this verdict should also be seen in a broader context of Indian political system, where the Hindutva forces wield the cudgel. The Modi government had made sure that the internet was not freely available to areas where Muslims could protest or raise their voices. Indian Muslims are acutely aware of their vulnerability in case of any opposition to this verdict. The fear of attacks by the militant Hindus is not something they can ignore. They know how over two thousand Muslims were massacred by the Hindu mobs.


Q: Do you believe justice was served by the verdict?


A: Modi bears much responsibility for the communal violence in India when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. In 2002, there was a mass bloodbath in his state in which more than two thousand Muslims were killed, their women raped and their properties pillaged by the Hindu mobs when a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire in which 58 people died. Without any evidence, Modi accused Pakistan of causing the fire. Within hours of his provocation, the killing of Muslims started in his state. The way the Hindu mobs molested and raped Muslim women is too painful for me to repeat here.


Modi has shown his political base is his militant right-wing parties and followers who want to change India into a Hindu rashtra. How to do this is part of the political strategy of Hindutva which he follows. The first major step he took on 5 August was to colonize the 8-million Kashmiri Muslims by isolating them in a total blockade by the most savage means.

In India, it is the Hindutva that reigns supreme, and Modi is their leader. The Indian judicial system is not immune against the prevailing political situation and policies of the Modi government. The verdict of the Supreme Court has left no doubt in the minds of political observers that the highest court of the land has furthered the anti-Muslim communal policies of the present government.


Q: Islam is the second largest religion in India, with approximately 200 million Muslims. Why do Indian Muslims struggle to retrain their religious rights?


A: The causes of the social, economic and political condition of Indian Muslims in a predominately Hindu India are many. The British rulers of India had their own colonial interests. When the Indian freedom movement gained momentum after the First World War, the British rulers found themselves in a precarious situation in face of the growing demands of freedom, which was mostly led by the Indian National Congress. When the Muslim League under the leadership of M.A. Jinnah made his Two-Nation Theory a basis for establishing a Muslim state, Pakistan, that finally resulted in 1947 in the partition of India into India and Pakistan, the Muslims who lived in India suffered most. Most Hindus never forgave Muslims for the partition of India. As a result, the Indian Muslims have been suspect in the eyes of Hindus, and over the years their political and economic condition became weak. The upsurge of militant Hindutva nationalism in India and the goals of Hindu rashtra regard Muslims as their main enemies. So, the Indian Muslims live in that anti-Muslim environment and are subject to many social and political pressures as unwanted people in India.




Saturday, October 05, 2019

The power elite ignore what the ordinary people say

-- Nasir Khan, Oct. 5, 2019
 
In a searching and thoughtful comment, Maria Moorat gave her views on the issue of injustices. I reproduce her comment here, followed by my comment.
 
Maria Moorat: Some people rail against injustice, wherever it occurs. The trouble is we are frustrated by our tiny voices being ignored. Even large public demonstrations are ignored; they may hit the headlines, but the next day the status quo continues. The powers that be, and the armament companies, will not stop selling death dealing devices to India or Israel or Saudi, or wherever, the business is too lucrative and they care nothing for those who die. And, the media in the west has brainwashed people into believing untruths.
 
Nasir Khan: Maria, what you say is strikingly true. It is a fact that some people speak up against injustices, and occasionally also get much support for the causes they stand for. But in the long run, the political establishment prevails, and no substantial results are achieved in the fight against the main purveyors of violence and abusers of human rights.
 
For instance, when President George W. Bush was planning a war of aggression against Iraq to further the US imperial and Zionist interests in the Middle East, millions of people around the world protested against the coming war. There was much enthusiasm in the masses of people against the plans of the American ruling gangsters. But Bush went ahead. He invaded Iraq, and ravaged a large Arab country as much his administration wanted. Americans virtually, destroyed Iraq.
 
When all this was taking place in the most brutal way, the protesters and protests had died down. Only a small minority of writers, bloggers, journalists and anti-war organizations continued to voice their opposition to the policies of the US imperialists. I was also one of those people, writing continuously on my blogs and on different websites. But the militarists and warmongers did not stop. So, the voices of protesters and opponents of wars did not affect the policies of the aggressor.
 
The same thing has been going on in Palestine and Kashmir. Two most vicious and brutal colonial powers, Israel and India, feel free to kill, suppress and suffocate the colonized people. This is happening before our eyes. No powerful country intervenes to stop the savagery in Palestine and Kashmir.

Tuesday, October 01, 2019

Indian colonial policy in Kashmir is a global threat

-- Nasir Khan, Oct. 1, 2019
Pakistani PM Imran Khan's words of warning in the UNGA were not a threat to anyone, but a warning against the great threat that India has unleashed in Kashmir by its military terror by encapsulating over 8 million Kashmiris into a big prison, by cutting them off from any contact with the outside world or with each other. Such savagery the world has not seen over such a large population.
As I have suggested a few times before about the present large-scale state terror and the incredible cruelty in Kashmir that India has started with fresh vigor is to advance the objectives of the Hindutva ideology of extremist fanaticism that targets and discriminates against the religious and marginalized minorities within the Indian state.
The course followed by India violates the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and international norms dealing with subjugated or colonized population.
There is only one sane way for the Indian government in the present inferno that India has created in Kashmir, and that is to reverse its toxic policy it imposed on the Kashmiris on 5 August 2019, restore the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, and then enter into serious negotiations with Kashmiris and Pakistan under the direction of the United Nation with a view to end the old conflict according to the wishes of the people of Kashmir.
There are three parties to the conflict, the people of Kashmir, India and Pakistan. The fate of Kashmir and Kashmiris cannot be decided by the Indian occupation army and its barbaric treatment of the people of Kashmir, but only by the people of Kashmir.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

UN, India and Kashmir


--Nasir Khan, Sept. 22, 2019

Akashma Marivel Guzman, you have nicely highlighted the facts about the Indian crimes in Kashmir since 1948, and what you say is absolutely true. The UN can still take steps to stop the Indian savagery in Kashmir, but there are too many restraints upon its proper functioning. The big powers have their geopolitical and economic interests in international politics. They are quite complacent with the policies of India in international trade and economic relations.

The rights of the Kashmiri people to determine their future, like the rights of the colonized and oppressed Palestinians, have no bearing upon the policy decisions of these powers. This has been evident whenever the Kashmir issue came up before the United Nations, as happened in August this year. As a result, the UN is in a state of limbo, not able to implement its resolutions regarding Jammu and Kashmir or Palestine.

One-million soldiers of the Indian army in Kashmir are profoundly drilled into anti-Muslim hatred and animosity by the leaders of Hindutva fascism. They are free to kill, maim, blind the protesters by using pellets, rape the Kashmiri women, imprison and torture the people who stand against the Indian colonial rule over their land and seek freedom.

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Akashma Online News

---Akashma Marivel Guzman

Wikipedia is a disinformation website. Just read what you get, when searching "UN+Kashmir."

"The United Nations has played an important role in maintaining peace and order in Jammu and Kashmir soon after the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, when a dispute erupted between the two States on the question of Jammu and Kashmir." Wikipedia

What peace, are they talking about?
The UN has 116 persons "keeping the peace, " vs One million Indian soldiers dispersed all around J&K.

The UN has spent its entire existence drafting resolutions, passing resolutions, convening meetings;both at the General Assembly and at the Security Council, without resolving a single conflict.

But, through the pressure of the 5 states with veto power, they have imposed economic sanctions against States, whose policies go against the interest of such states (5 permanent members of the Security Council with veto power)

Example, we can read this resolution passed on March 19, 1948, at the 269th Security Council Meeting.

On the Articles of Settlements:

A. Restoration of Piece and Order

2. The Government of India shall arrange:

(a) For the progressive withdrawal from Jammu and Kashmir of such of its troops as are not required for the purpose of defense and security.

(b) For stationing the reminder at such point as not to afford any intimidation or the appearance of intimidation, to the inhabitants of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Well, that was more than 71 years ago.

Now, India has a soldier stationed in J&K per home/family amounting to almost one million soldiers.

So, does the UN do anything has kept peace in the J&K state?

The UN and its own Human Rights Report published in Feb. 2018, speaks of terrible abuse of #humanrights including torture, abuse of force, forced disappearanceof persons, almost 10,000.

Can the UN do something about it?

If the UN was true to its missions, it could stop India from getting away with its crimes—Drafting and passing a bonding resolution to force India to meet its obligation, it signed on 1947.

But, as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said to RT last week "He can not believe that India allies and economic partners care more for trade and profits than for human lives."

Khan can not believe, and I do believe, I'm sure of it. States are owned by powerful interests including War Industrial Complex, Pharmaceuticals and mine and agro-industry just to mention the more powerful. I have to include Media conglomerate, which partakes of the profits advertising human suffering.

I'm so pessimist, that some type of miracle will fall from the sky and save the Muslims of J&K and that of the 200 million living in main India. 😔
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https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/unmogip
 
 

Friday, September 13, 2019

Ignorance in action





-- Nasir Khan


"Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832 AD)
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To see ignorance in action, as Goethe says, also means that we should be able to see the difference between ignorance and knowledge. Not an easy task for many of us! In fact, things get much fuddled when ignorance wrapped up in social and political dogmas is presented to us as accumulated wisdom.
The economic and political forces in society have power; they have also a large apparatus at their disposal to present what they do is for the common good. Their tasks are made easy with the help of intellectuals who are mostly organically linked to the ruling elite and the existing political structure. 


Because of their organic relationship with the existing power structure, they become the vocal spokespersons for the ruling class and its entrenched class interests. Next in line is the priestly class to do the rest; it finds the sanction of the heavenly powers to sustain what exists! As a result, most of us remain prisoners of ignorance without noticing it. This remains so despite the struggles of a tiny minority that swims against the current.

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-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Image result for Goethe

Friday, August 16, 2019

Over 200 writers and cultural activists respond to the Kashmir situation: “This is a mockery of democracy”


From the Indian Cultural Forum:

By revoking the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and splitting it up into two union territories, the central government has made a mockery of democracy. It has violated the solemn promises made to the state of Jammu & Kashmir by the Union of India during the accession of the state in 1947.

The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the breakup of the state has been executed unilaterally, clandestinely and coercively. The people — across religious, cultural, ethnic and ideological segments — have not been consulted. Indeed, the unprecedented security and information clampdown in the state since 5th August 2019 is proof of the government’s fear of popular discontent and democratic dissent.

We, Indians who are writers, artists, media persons and cultural activists, condemn the undemocratic and unconstitutional moves of the government in Jammu & Kashmir. We condemn the government’s division of people and territories from above, subverting the very basis of our constitutional federalism. We condemn the state of siege imposed on the people of a state already suffering for many long years.

We demand that the state of siege in Jammu & Kashmir be lifted, and all basic freedoms — including those of free expression, communication and media freedoms — be restored with immediate effect. We demand the restoration of Article 370, and the restoration of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. We declare our solidarity with the Kashmiri people, and call on all our fellow citizens to resist this authoritarian challenge to the freedom and autonomy of Jammu & Kashmir.


 https://indianculturalforum.in/2019/08/16/over-200-writers-and-cultural-activists-respond-to-the-kashmir-situation-this-is-a-mockery-of-democracy/?fbclid=IwAR3Rs9I-qv3wy6BKXz_vbXxhvweClbzAPVYET-qrnMxiFa7eL6iUIB-18qU
 
 
 Click on the link below to see the names of the signatories to this statement
 
 
 

Monday, August 12, 2019

India's colonial occupation of Kashmir and its deception and lies


--Nasir Khan, August 12, 2019

India has never liked someone telling the truth about Kashmir that became the Indian-administered Kashmir in 1947, but in reality was the Indian-occupied Kashmir. Since then, the Indian Government in New Delhi has consistently followed the strategy to malign those people or news agencies that said something that went against the official Indian version. That strategy is still in place, and used by the present Hindutva government under the premiership of Narendra Modi.
 
At present what India is doing in Jammu and Kashmir is to keep a heavy lid on the events reaching the outside world. Within Kashmir India has a tight military control by employing around 800, 000 soldiers. The Indian leaders and officials keep on fooling the world public opinion with their deceptive lies and false information. Even in this extremely hard conditions they face, the people of Kashmir, men, women, and young children are protesting and resisting the Hindutva fascists. But these people face the full wrath of the occupying army.
 
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For the full coverage, click on the link: 
 
 
 

BBC says it stands by its reporting on Kashmir

The UK-based media house refuted the Indian government’s assertion that its reports on Kashmir were inaccurate or misleading

NH Web Desk

NH Web Desk

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), widely respected for its integrity, on Sunday countered the Indian authorities' allegations that its reports on Kashmir were inaccurate or misleading.

In a statement, the BBC said that it stands by its report and emphasised that it was covering the situation in the Valley "impartially and accurately".
According to a BBC report, "Despite the unprecedented security lockdown, thousands of people demonstrated in Srinagar and were met with live fire, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets."

"The BBC stands by its journalism and we strongly refute any claims that we have misrepresented events in KAshmir. We are covering the situation impartially and accurately," the BBC said in a statement.

"Like other broadcasters, we are currently operating under severe restrictions in Kashmir but we will continue to report what is happening," it added.
 

Saturday, August 10, 2019

India as a brutal Colonial Power in Jammu and Kashmir

   

-- Nasir Khan, August 9, 2019 

A young man, Asif Janjua, whose family sought refuge in Azad Kashmir/Pakistan from the Indian Occupied Kashmir in 1947, has raised a few points in his comments about the ongoing turmoil in Kashmir. In his anger, he has suggested that Pakistan should think of fighting India or even use its nuclear weapons to deter India from annexing Kashmir into India. I understand the pain and anguish of Asif Janjua and many other people about the actions of the Hindu extremists and nationalists led by the Indian prime minster Narendra Modi. All such reactions of anger, frustration and disgust we experience are natural, and are caused by the Indian rulers' callous disregard of Kashmiri people's political, social, cultural and legal rights under their occupation. 

But as a political activist and writer, I have to see things rationally as much as I can, without becoming a prey to strong emotional outpourings. In brief, I am trying to clarify only two, three points about the Kashmir situation under India's brutal power. Some readers may find my views helpful to understand the Indian violations of basic political, social and legal rights of a subjugated people who, since 1947, have suffered enough under India's colonial oppression but who have never surrendered their national aspirations and struggle against this powerful usurper. 

First of all, it is natural for some of us to think of war as the only means to repel India from its barbarous military occupation and brutalization of the 12 million Kashmiris. However, things are not so easy. For instance, if Pakistan wages a war on behalf of the beleaguered Kashmiris, India will respond with a bigger force; India is a big military power, and has a very large army. That will not give Pakistani army any advantage over Indian forces. In such a weakened position, if Pakistan uses nuclear weapons as a 'deterrent', then what will India do? Maybe India had already put its armed forces on alert and also put its nuclear arsenal in readiness to use on its selected targets in Pakistan before declaring its annexation of Kashmir and expecting any military reaction from Pakistan. So, things are quite complicated and fraught with danger.

Yes, over the last seven decades the world should have done more to help resolve the Kashmir conflict. I agree with this view. But in reality, things do not happen in such way in the world. We should keep in mind that powerful states do not follow any moral principles in world politics. They follow their own geopolitical interests, and act when they want to protect these interests or deter any threat to such interests. 

The only major international forum is the United Nations. It is only through the United Nations that the world at large discusses any major political conflicts such as the Kashmir issue. Here again, only the five permanent member states have veto power; they may all support any resolution or any one permanent member state veto a resolution. 

If a party to conflict, refuses to follow any UN resolution, there is no credible mechanism to force it to comply with the UN demands. One glaring example is the Zionist colonial-settler state of Israel, which has rejected numerous UN resolutions against its policies in Occupied Palestine and its treatment of the Palestinians. India has played a deceptive game in dealing with the Kashmiris since 1947; India had no intention to let the Kashmiris decide their future status. Over the seven decades, India used all sorts of pretexts to avoid the Kashmiri demand of plebiscite in Kashmir. And now it has found the Final Solution in the illegal and treacherous annexation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). 

It is a fact that India wanted to keep Kashmir under its rule at every cost, but it allowed J&K a special status to run its own affairs with a large measure of internal autonomy. Now, it has abrogated that constitutional provision and put the whole state under its direct rule because the Hindutva nationalist parties led by Modi wanted to do so and end the Muslim majority in Kashmir with measures that will reduce and negate the identity of Kashmir and Kashmiris in a profound way. 

What India has done is a demonstration of power politics. In such a misuse of power, the rights and voice of the people of Kashmir have been mercilessly discarded. But it does not mean that the struggle of the people of Kashmir will also come to an end. When the people know how they have been deceived by the Hidutva fascists led by PM Modi, they will resist the occupation and annexation of their country into India, which is fast becoming a Hindu Rashtra, a puritan Hindu state.

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