'Guided' tour of occupied J&K

The BJP government in New Delhi is desperately trying to counter widespread criticism of the human rights crisis in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) created by its illegal and immoral action of August 5 and relentless crackdown amid curfews and communications blackout. In a bid to show all is well, it recently invited foreign diplomats for a two-day visit to occupied Kashmir to meet with officers, politicians, civil society groups and journalists selected by the security services. The European Union representatives refused to participate in that 'guided' tour, unless they could meet with people freely of their own choosing. In particular, they had wanted to meet with three incarcerated former chief ministers, Farooq Abdullah, Omer Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. The latter until not long ago was a senior coalition partner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, the BJP. These peoples have been pro-India all through their political careers. Delhi should not have had any qualms about anyone talking to them. But the very fact they are under detention and no one can contact them only goes on to show that the government fears they would give a lie to its narrative that the situation is under control except for Pakistan acting as troublemaker.

Although the EU representatives stayed back, diplomats from 15 countries, including the US, did accept the offer, according to an Indian spokesman, "to see first-hand the efforts that have been made by the government to normalize the situation." The statement in itself acknowledges -inadvertently, of course - that the situation has not been normal. What they may have seen on Thursday surely was not normal, either. After partial lifting of restrictions in selected areas, people would have come out to run important errands or work to earn a living, and the visitors may have seen some activity, but not knowing what those people were thinking. In any event, it is the job of diplomats stationed in any country to know from independent sources every detail regarding important issues as well as the atmospherics, and report the same to their head offices back home. In fact, diplomats from several countries are said to have privately raised concerns about human rights in their private conversations with counterparts in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Some of those, especially from the US, who took the trip organised by the MEA are unlikely to have changed their opinion about the situation, it is another matter though that their governments find it expedient to look the other way due to strategic and economic considerations, and refrain from telling India to stop its reign of terror in IOJ&K.

So far, even the EU's public stance on rights violations has been subdued at best. Nonetheless, as a press report points out it has been pressing New Delhi for months to access some of the detained Kashmiri leaders. It is still keen to go at a later stage. If the BJP government has nothing to hide let it give access to EU diplomats to meet with anyone they want. Even more important, it should lift restrictions on international media reporting from the troubled region.