Kashmir : The Burning Topic These Days
The emotions and tempers run high on the Kashmir issue, mainly because all us feel so helpless and hapless. All sorts of suggestions are floating around. The jingoistic, which include educated successful people are very pessimistic about the outcome of any negotiations, denigrate the UN (and rightly so) for its complete negligence and impotence and would like an all out violent confrontation. Fortunately, wiser counsel seems to prevail for the time being. The preference is to follow peaceful and diplomatic measures to bring pressure on the blatantly racial and fascist Hindutva government of Modi, an active and aggressive member of the infamous RSS. In this context a major assault is to harness and inform the international community and rebuild our image. It seems our attempts are not in vain. There is evidence of impact on the Western Media. As an example, I would like to share with you an article today by the prestigious Board of Editors of New York TimesThe U.N. Can't Ignore Kashmir Anymore.
Another article published in the same newspaper about a fortnight earlier Don't Mess With Modi in Texas shows us that Modi also is trying his best to build his image in the West and Western media. It says
“Who could resist an audience of more than 50,000 Indian-Americans packed into a Texas football stadium? Not Donald Trump, on the eve of an election year, so he joined the “Howdy, Modi!” party here to proclaim, with the Indian prime minister, a great future of shared values and mutual reinforcement for the world’s two largest democracies”.
It adds
“Trump chose to signal approval (of clamping down on the mainly Muslim territory) by standing side-by-side with the prime minister” and “The president got his biggest cheer by saying the United States was determined to help protect India from the threat of ‘radical Islamic terrorism’.”
The article comments significantly “Kashmir illustrates how the Trump administration’s indifference to human rights issues offers carte blanche to leaders like Modi. American pushback has disappeared.”
The article then comes down on Pakistan with some acid remarks “The reaction of Khan, the Pakistani prime minister, has been wild. Suggesting Modi has sympathy for the Third Reich, comparing him to a Fascist leader and stating that he may commit “genocide,” is to protest too much. Raising the possibility of nuclear war is reckless. All this suggests his bluff has been called. If Pakistan is so concerned about Nazi Germany, it might begin by recognizing the State of Israel. Whether Pakistan really wants a solution in Kashmir, the region that justifies its bloated military budget, and whether it can ever transparently demonstrate that its intelligence services have stopped finding uses for radical Islamism in its various violent forms, remain open questions.” But quickly adds
“They are important questions for the United States, as it contemplates a military withdrawal from Afghanistan. A quandary for Trump now will be how to secure Pakistani support, rather than suffer an incensed Pakistan’s sabotage, if he moves forward with his promise to bring American troops home.”
The article concludes by predicting “Modi will not turn back from his elimination of Kashmir’s autonomy. That phase of Indian history is over.”
