Umair Pervez Khan;
As the world is struggling to fight the Corona pandemic, the Secular- largest democracy of the world, India, is busy in implementing the Hindutva agenda in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. In continuation to the revocation of article 370 theoretically last August, now comes its practical version by the name of “The new Jammu & Kashmir reorganization order 2020”, introducing the new domicile law for the occupied region. The law enables any person living in the occupied state for 15 years or any student studying there for 7 years and appearing in the matriculation exam or central government officials being the resident of the area for at least ten years, to get the domicile of the occupied state and enjoy the permanent citizen status without any restrictions that persisted there for last seven decades.
The new domicile law is no doubt a clear-cut violation of United Nations resolutions on Kashmir and the 4th Geneva convention. Despite of condemnation by international community and violation of international law, Modi government has moved a step forward to permanently change the demography of the occupied state. The stats of 2011 census depicts the decrease in total Muslim population of the occupied state as 68% compared to 80% in 1947. The Hindus ratio has increased to 30% while the rest of the residents are 1% Buddhists and 2% Sikhs. The Indian government, copying its crime partner, Israel, is all set to alter the already disturbed demographic proportion of occupied region to irreversible extent. According to an estimate 700,000 Indian army personals are present in the region along with equivalent numbers of the outside laborers. This new law would provide an opportunity to aliens to get the domicile of the occupied state. Moreover, the government has already given the domicile status to 300,000 west Pakistan migrants of 1947, mostly Hindus. The implementation of this law is threat to the unique identity of Kashmir. Already unemployed youth of the occupied state, with further shrinking of employment options will be left with no choice except militancy as their identity is systematically eroded. This would lead to chaos and increase in militancy in the region. The timing of the introduction of New Domicile law also says a lot about the nefarious designs of RSS followers.
Already miserable population of occupied Kashmir facing 8 months long curfew, recently confronting Corona pandemic with insufficient resources is now thrown into another dungeon by introducing this black law. This new domicile law would not only serve the interests of the Hindutva ideology but will also colonize the local population of the region. The complete “Hindunization” of Hindustan is not far away as changes in special status of Kashmir along with Citizen Amendment ship bill in India indicates. The existence of all other minorities in Hindustan is already threatened. All political parties along with newly created pro Indian Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party of the occupied region has condemned the new domicile law. Despite of Joint Resistance Leadership in custody and slow internet services, the youth of the occupied state have flooded the social media by exposing the evil designs of Delhi behind the addition of another black law, but the central government has again relied on traditional methods of suppressing the voice by power. The movement in the occupied state had already been restricted for last 8 months and now thanks to the Corona pandemic which has helped the Indian state to control the public expression against these unilateral and illegal changes.
The public demonstrations are yet to be followed. The implications of this new law are beyond the occupied state or even India as it is a direct challenge to the interests of South Asian region. The world must not stay silent due to its economic interests and realize that more than half of the planet earths population is under direct nuclear threat. Furthermore, Pakistan must act aggressively to lobby for safeguarding its long moral stand on the issue otherwise it would be too late to perform. Finally, the mission of United Nation has faced two challenges since its inception i.e. Palestine and Kashmir. The organization is continuously failing to correct its track record viz a viz these two issues. If, in case UN and other international bodies fail to even address this new challenge, this could lead to great hurdle in globalization phenomenon. The insecurity around the Muslims of the world would increase as the world institutions would once again fail to deliver on an issue directly threatening the Muslim interests. This would lead to decrease in relevancy of such institutions including the Organization of the Islamic Country, in the eyes of peace-loving people, respecting liberal values including the right to self-determination and would provide an opportunity to hardliners to adopt different strategies to tackle the issues rather than that of international cooperation. The international community and UN have a responsibility to stop another Palestine in making otherwise destabilization of the region is inevitable.