India’s prime minister on Thursday held talks with political leaders from Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the first such meeting since New Delhi stripped the Muslim majority region of its semi-autonomous status in August 2019.

According to media reports, he told leaders from IIOJK that elections would be held there after the region’s constituencies were refigured – “delimitations”. He, however, did not agree to undo the revocation of its semi-autonomous statehood. Meeting Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi was nothing but a ploy aimed at further perpetuating its sway over IIOJK. For Kashmiris Modi is a ruler exercising authority in a ‘colony’ like a viceroy on behalf of a sovereign. His meeting with the Kashmiri leaders, including three former chief ministers of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), was a clever move on BJP government’s part so as to improve its own illegitimate position in IIOJK.

Tariq Minhas (Mirpur, AJK)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021