One of Indian-occupied Kashmir’s most influential freedom leaders leaves no doubts, if there ever was, as to where the sympathies and support of the Kashmiris’ lie: Pakistan.
If this can’t break your heart, then you’re an Indian politician or an Indian general, or one of hundreds of Indian journalists in the mainstream media who self-censor news about the genocide underway in Kashmir by their country’s armed forces, more than 700,000 of them concentrated in a small piece of land. And yet see the courage of an unarmed people who fight everyday this conspiracy of silence. Their actions shake the foundations of the Indian government in New Delhi every day.
Dvija Jee joins us to provide his exclusive perspective on India’s policy options and superpower ambitions. Today, he debutes with President Obama’s visit to India.
India’s weapons purchases from the United States are not bigger than Saudi Arabia or the oil-rich Gulf states. Nor is the Indian IT industry really much more than a Call-Center industry that can’t even beat the Chinese IT base. India is worried about a popular backlash in the US against Indianizing American jobs. As Obama heads to India, the picture is more complicated than what is being projected.
A Hindu extremist political party has attacked the house of renowned Indian novelist Arundhati Roy. Her crime? Speaking up for the rights of the people of Kashmir who are facing the wrath of a million-man army. India is risking a lot by letting its extremists harass this Indian lady.
Obama in New Delhi can say six things: Stop military action against civilians in Kashmir, withdraw soldiers from towns and villages, dismantle bunkers, watch towers and barricades, release prisoners, end shoot-at-sight orders, and restore basic rights of Kashmiris to move and assemble.
See this slideshow prepared by Foreign Policy magazine. It doesn’t roundly condemn Indian atrocities, not yet at least. But considering the past, it is three-steps forward for the Am-Brit media, and hopefully the beginning of a trend that might help introduce the American people to unchecked Indian atrocities.
The Guardian newspaper of Britian publishes this insightful report about Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir. It is probably the first report of its kind on what India is exactly doing in the occupied region. It is also a sign of how the Am-Brit media, which long shielded Indian from negative media exposure, is beginning to see through India’s Iron Curtain over Kashmir.
She is a minority Christian defending minority Kashmiris. This has infuriated Hindu zealots. But now mainstream India media is inflaming passions against her, creating an air of intimidation and fear. This is dangerous in a religious boiling pot like India. World opinion must ask India to stop the lynching cabal and hold it responsible for her safety.
Arundhati Roy enjoys more credibility than India’s government or military. Her analysis on India’s occupation of Kashmir has exposed what the Indian military, politicians and media have been hiding for decades: the collective Indian crimes against Kashmiris.
India’s relation to Kashmir is not about Kashmir. Kashmir’s aversion to being subsumed by India is not reducible to history. India’s military governance penetrates every facet of life. The sounds of war haunt mohallas. The hyper-presence of militarization forms a graphic shroud over Kashmir: Detention and interrogation centres, army cantonments, abandoned buildings, bullet holes, bunkers and watchtowers, detour signs, deserted public squares, armed personnel, counter-insurgents, and vehicular and electronic espionage.
A desperate India is cooking up another ruse: It wants Pakistan to send its foreign minister to shake hands with his Indian counterpart in New York so that New Delhi could demoralize Kashmiri protesters and tell them Pakistan approves of Indian genocide in Kashmir. Islamabad must not give this photo-op to New Delhi. Instead, it should exploit Indian desperation in occupied Kashmir.
Forget AfPak. It’s more about AfKash, Afghanistan and Kashmir. That is the key if President Obama wants to turn Afghanistan into a victory. Pakistan cannot press a button to stop the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan from resisting America-Karzai-warlords who sidelined them and kept them out of power in Kabul. The anti-India actions in Kashmir are also not a Pakistani creation. They will continue, fester and invite reaction from Kashmiris and Pakistanis on Pakistani soil unless resolved. Desperate US policymakers shouldn’t listen to smugly Indians who claim they know the region better than anyone else and have come up with this bogus anti-Pashtun policy in Afghanistan. They misled the Soviets in the 1970s and now they are misleading the Americans.
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