Washington, DC.: “The people of Kashmir wish the people of India well. They do not consider them their enemy. Therefore, on India’s Republic Day, Kashmiris extend their best wishes to the people of India. Kashmiris, however, voice deep regret at the hypocrisy of the Government of Indian of its high-minded ideals in Kashmir, which marked its entrance into the family of nations after long years of British rule: shocking human rights violations, ignoring the international law, and disregard of binding UN Security Council resolutions on self-determination,” Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, Washington-based ‘World Forum for Peace and Justice’ stated in a message on the eve of India’s Republic Day.

 Indian Ministry of Defence states that “the celebration of the (Republic) Day mark the spirit when democracy and justice were chosen to run the nation.” That is a daft assertion, certainly, Fai stated. Kashmir is dreadful testimony to India’s false democratic credentials. And peaceable political dissent is made a criminal offense. India’s detentions of Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Masarat Alam, Aasia Andrabi and different genuine Kashmiri political leaders besmirches India’s boast because the world’s most populous democracy and insistence that its navy occupation of Kashmir is welcomed and endorsed by the Kashmiri individuals. 

 Within the very coronary heart of democracy is the fixed movement of concepts, of broad public opinion, which supplies a rustic the energy to develop and mature by means of a good analysis and consideration of these concepts which symbolize knowledge by their inclusiveness slightly than by exclusion. New York primarily based, ‘Committee to Protect Journalists’ described Indian authorities’s freedom of expression in these phrases: ‘Kashmiri news media has been pushed to the brink of extinction.’ British historian, Bertrand Russell described India’s democratic credentials in 1964: “The high idealism of the Indian government in international matters breaks down completely when confronted with the question of Kashmir.” I believe it’s higher, Fai added {that a} nation like India that celebrates itself as a secular democratic state should pay its dues to essentially the most basic democratic freedom of all, and the appropriate of dissent.  ‘Silence becomes cowardice,’ Mahatma Gandhi stated, ‘when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.’

Fai condemned Government of India’s newest try and arrest human rights activists below the draconian legislation: Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Khurram Parvez, Dr. Asif Dar and Muzzammil Thakur are the prime examples. Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders stated Khurram Parvez isn’t a terrorist, he is a human rights defender.  What these three human rights activists have been saying has authorized, constitutional, and worldwide legitimacy. They have been pleading the difficulty of ‘Self-determination, Freedom and Justice for Kashmir’, these are neither secessionist nor separatist slogans. It is a reminder to these on the helm of affairs in New Delhi that these have been the very phrases pronounced by Pandit Nehru, then the prime minister of India and Mahatma Gandhi, the founding father of India. Does the BJP-led authorities additionally need to lodge sedition prices posthumously in opposition to Pandit Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi who’re on file to have stated that the individuals of Kashmir have the appropriate to determine the destiny of their nation?

 The individuals of Kashmir have been heartened to pay attention once more from the UN Secretary General of the United Nations on January 21, 2022, that Kashmir subject needs to be resolved below UN Charter and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Secretary General added: ‘we hope that this is something that can be solved peacefully and that the situation in Kashmir is a situation in which human rights are respected and in which people can live in peace and security.’ I believe it’s the time, Fai added that the Secretary General ought to hearken to Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, Founding President Genocide Watch who warned the worldwide group “We believe that the Indian government’s actions in Kashmir have been an extreme case of persecution and could very well lead to genocide.” “So many of the early stages of genocide are already present. We don’t wait until it is a full out mass killing campaign to declare genocide. There are early warning signs of genocide now and that’s what we believe is the situation in Kashmir.”

 The solely resolution to the issue lies in permitting the individuals of Kashmir to train their unrestricted proper to self-determination to determine their future – a pledge given to them by the world group some 74 years in the past. Fai stated that it’s not rocket science. If the Kashmir query have been resolved, a lot of the hostility between India and Pakistan would dissolve. The area wouldn’t be dwelling on the sting of a nuclear holocaust. Trade between the 2 international locations would flourish. Jobs and significant lives could be created. Families cut up aside the ceasefire line by the battle may be a part of collectively once more. There could be no extra shelling on the ceasefire line. Those 900,000 Indian navy and paramilitary forces may go dwelling and do one thing constructive as an alternative of beating up on ladies and kids. What clever particular person couldn’t agree with that?

Dr. Fai may be reached at: 1-202-607-6435  or  gnfai2003@yahoo.com