EDITORIAL: In August of 2019 the Modi government relegated occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its Ladakh region to the status of union territories to fashion what the ruling BJP leaders described a "Naya [new] Kashmir", employing bloody repression to stifle the freedom struggle and a domicile law aimed at inducting more and more Hindus into the Valley to render Muslims a minority in their native land. They have managed to create a 'Naya Kashmir', though quite contrary to the one they had set out to achieve. Even the previously pro-India leaders, like the three former chief ministers of the disputed state, Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti (who is still under detentions), have been left with no choice but to confront New Delhi. In a recent exhaustive interview with a prominent journalist, Karan Thapar, the senior Abdullah described the mood in the occupied valley by bemoaning that he seemed to have fallen between two stools: The Indian government viewed him as a traitor and arrested him; Kashmiris, on the other hand, saw him as a servant of India and taunted him for having said 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', leaving him deeply shaken and upset. However, after 7-8 month in detention, he said, his standing and that of his party and other 'mainstream' parties has been considerably restored in the Kashmiri eyes.
He termed as complete rubbish Indian claims that the Kashmiris have accepted the August 2019 changes just because there have been no (large-scale) protests. Pointing to some recent clashes between the freedom fighters and security forces, he added that if the soldiers on every street and Section 144 were to be lifted people will come out in their tens of lakhs. Even so, the undeniable reality is that occupied J&K remains under siege for over 13 months, which is evidence enough of New Delhi having lost Kashmir. How complete is the estrangement Abdullah explained in a startling enunciation. The people, he said, do not want to listen to you. Every Kashmiri, including those who had opposed joining Pakistan, were looking at the India-China border standoff with interest. What may be the point of interest to them is more than obvious. Yet he left no room for doubt, going as far as to aver, "today Kashmiris do not feel Indian, and do not want to be Indian... they are slaves... they would rather have the Chinese rule them."
The Chinese, of course, would not want to rule over the Kashmiris nor would the Kashmiris really want that. But China is not an idle bystander, either. Having territorial claims over a part of Ladakh, its annexation as a union territory has angered that country to no end. Beijing also has a strategic interest in the region, as expressed by President Xi Jinping last year when he mentioned Kashmir as a flashpoint at the confluence of three mighty mountain ranges needing trilateral - of India, Pakistan, and China's-attention. Some security analysts see that and the recent recurring border clashes in the Ladakh region as part of an understanding between Pakistan and China to check US' influence, and find some sort of a compromise solution of the Kashmir issue. That may seem a far-fetched idea at this point in time, but nothing is impossible in even seemingly intractable situations. For now, by severing even a symbolic link with the union, India clearly has created an insoluble crisis for itself.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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