Window opens to international community on Kashmir

Arun Joshi

THE Centre has thrown window wide open to the international community to Kashmir to see for itself the ground situation in the Valley, cutting to size all critics questioning Delhi’s intentions since it abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two union territories on August 5.

The visit of the MEPs to Kashmir on Tuesday, a milestone in the given situation when the global opinion is sought to be manipulated by the India-bashers as if the people were confined to their homes forever since, and they had no access to anything that sustains life. The fact is that despite certain relaxations and a push to the idea of normalcy, tensions dot the landscape and the people, but if the place is being opened to the EU that means that the facts lie somewhere in between what they have been told back home and the homes where Kashmiris live in the Valley.

Two things are singularly very important: each calendar day is encircled with the number of days since Kashmir lost the special status, and its statehood on August 5. For example, it is day No. 85 on Monday, and it would be No. 86 on Tuesday. It is just like that only.

Second, a fierce contest of narratives has been going on since August 5. One, which talks about sufferings of Kashmiris. The unbearable restrictions, communication clampdown and medical emergencies form the core of this narration. Several influential voices in the US and elsewhere started trusting this in its totality, and they had with them the ready references in the reports appearing in the western media wherein the Kashmir situation was described as “alarming” and close to a catastrophe, for many channels of communication, especially the Internet, are out of bounds for the people in the Valley.

The other narration was completely Indian nationalistic in which nothing else mattered except the fact that India had exercised its constitutional right in doing away with the special status that existed as “temporary” and “transitory”. It was backed by Parliament with an overwhelming majority. However, there would never be an end to the questions about the way it was implemented. And, its zero bullet, zero casualty narration is something that the western world doesn’t see the way Delhi wants it to.

And this is just the start

The detention of the political leaders, including five-time Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, his son and also a former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, and yet another former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti , who headed the government for a little over two years with the support of the BJP is inexplicable. There are many others in jail, some of them are chronic stone-throwers who have a tendency to become terrorists, according to an assessment of the Army that has been battling Pakistan-sponsored militancy in Kashmir for the past 30 years.

The visit of the EU delegation would blunt all criticism that India was being opaque on Kashmir. The global institutions, including the United Nations, that had been pressing Delhi to allow international teams to visit the Valley would also be left with no doubts, but it all depends how the EU delegation views and articulates the Kashmir situation after the visit. The EU holds an important voice in shaping the world opinion.

It may happen that Kashmir may speak with its silence. It can be in any form. Kashmiris are quite innovative in finding new means of protest. But the story that there were zero bullets and there was no bloodbath in the Valley after the August 5 decision would also be visible to the EU.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the state yesterday, must have told MEPs the genesis of the issue, and the sequence of the events on Monday. 

The visit is good, and it has come just a couple of days ahead of J&K and Ladakh being declared as union territories, a new reality on the map.

Shaping world opinion

The visit of the EU delegation would blunt all criticism that India was being opaque on Kashmir. The global institutions, including the United Nations, that had been pressing Delhi to allow international teams to visit the Valley would also be left with no doubts, but it all depends how the EU delegation views and articulates the Kashmir situation after the visit. The EU holds an important voice in shaping the world opinion