It has been over 100 days now since the BJP government of Narendra Modi illegally and unconstitutionally claimed to have annexed Indian Occupied Kashmir into India. These 100 days have been terrible for the people living in those areas, with persistent lockdowns, curfews, and restrictions on freedoms of expression and movement. These curbs and related persecution have resultant in a prison-like atmosphere for the Kashmiris living under the Indian occupation. Not that before the so-called annexation the people were happy and thriving; they had been under constant threat of violence by the Indian security forces who have been trying to crush the desire for freedom by using pellet guns, kidnapping, torture, and outright killing of those who aspire for self-determination. Even those who were not fighting for freedom and just trying to live a simple life were targeted and lived under suspicion.
In these 100 days, Indian Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has delivered two damning decisions that go against the true spirit of justice in India. These decisions pertained to Babri Mosque and Kashmir. While hearing the case about the situation in Kashmir, the chief justice did ask the Indian government to ease travel restrictions and facilitate the local people so that they can get back to normalcy, but shied away from declaring the ‘annexation’ null and void. Ideally, the court should have ordered that any changes in constitutional matter was not the sole prerogative of the Modi government. The will of the Kashmiri people is paramount and should be treated as the supreme determinant in any administrative and constitutional alterations. Without involving the people of Kashmir, the government of India cannot and should not interfere in the internal matters of a self-governing area, which was guaranteed even by the constitution of India.
Now, as things stand the UN is more or less silent on this issue. Most of the major world powers have shown pitiable nonchalance about the atrocities committed by the Indian occupation forces. The government of Pakistan itself seems to have lost the steam after the address of the PM at the UN in September. India appears to be getting away with murder and torture in the name of integrating Indian-occupied Kashmir into the mainland. What the Indian government – or any other government for that matter – should keep in mind is that people’s right to self-determination is an inalienable right. If an area, community, of group is forced to live under occupation, no progress can be achieved. Sooner or later, India will have to listen to the voice of Kashmiris and end its occupation.