ZUNAZ ARIF
Kashmir is a festering wound not only between India and Pakistan but for the entire South Asian region.
It is a multifaceted theme whose ramifications reach far beyond its geographical location; a humanitarian crisis, socio-political enigma, ideological riddle and an evolving puzzle of demographic complexities.
Adding to all these complications, the prevailing pandemic is another misery to the already compounding tragedies of Kashmiris.
The Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK), since the partition in 1947, has been through many upheavals, geopolitical shifts and socio-economic turns.
constitutional identity of IOK had kept the freedom of hope alive for more than seventy decades
Much had happened but the constitutional identity of IOK had kept the freedom of hope alive for more than seventy decades.
However, the fascist Modi’s August 5 decision of abrogating special status of IOK shattered all the dreams of independence and liberation from the repressive forces of India. Although death and life passes as a fragment of everyday life for a Kashmiri in IOK, the August 5 decision came as a worst form of repression; curfew tightened; Indian armed forces swarmed the valley, all forms of communication blackout and heinous suspensions of fundamental human rights.
It has been almost eight months that the Valley had been under illegal and inhumane lockdown. Kashmir issue always surfaced as a challenge to the conscience of international community.
Although the human rights organizations and affiliated bodies of the United Nations issued reports and urged New Delhi to lift the lockdown, nothing seemed adequate enough to lessen the misery of the Kashmiri people.
But, now, it seems that nature has its own way of awakening the conscience of the international community.
It came to light when the expected next superpower, China, got hit by a novel microorganism which was named as Covid-19 (coronavirus). With this, soon the world found itself standing on the verge of a biological apocalypse.
As a part of global world, fears and trepidation crept in the Kashmir Valley as a natural impulse. There were already heated debate going on worldwide as to what would be the Kashmiri’s reaction when the curfew is lifted.
Many predicted a “bloodbath” yet others foresaw a scenario where Kashmiris are given better opportunities of development and, hence, any possibility of massive resistance outweighed.
With Coronavirus pandemic, is this the case now?
As of now, just few cases of Coronavirus have surfaced in the Valley. Now, with the lockdown and already worsening situation of law and order, how the world’s second-biggest democracy is going to deal with this issue.
“no one would be able to sleep if I share a summary of daily events with the people.”
In the Valley, the hospitals are not well-equipped and worst consequences are feared for the people since the first patient tested positive. While talking to Al-Jazeera, Mayor of Srinagar Junaid Mattu informed with fear and trepidation that the preventive measures have not been taken proactively and that “they are not prepared for the worst.” Elaborating the magnitude of anxiety among the people, he stated that, “no one would be able to sleep if I share a summary of daily events with the people.”
The Modi government has redefined the domicile conditions for the Kashmiris. Before the revocation of Article 35A of the Indian constitution, Kashmir enjoyed its separate status but now the situation is different.
The political leadership which was put under house arrest after implementation of the decision and, now, when the curfew is eased, they are coming out in opposition. Even in the times of unprecedented health crisis, the Modi government is craftily playing with the demographic complexities by throwing the challenge of domicile registration.
The likes of Modi have proved that human life costs nothing to the pieces of land. The scholars having an eye on international relations phrase this unfortunate state of affairs as “resurgence of geopolitics” but is it so?
Former Chief Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah criticized the new setup and the conditions of acquiring the domicile. The question which will settle the future of Kashmir is: How the people of Kashmir would respond? The Kashmir issue has always transcended from the conventional domains of political expediencies.
The fact remains that it is the people of Kashmir who are the only legal authority to decide their future. If Kashmiris, as they are claiming, are left to “die like cattle”, the worst case scenario emerges for New Delhi. At that time, the scale of anger and frustration of the people will be manifold than the Modi could have ever imagined.
It would not be unfair to say what is the point of staying intact with the country that neither safeguards the fundamental human rights nor protects its people from being engulfed by a pandemic? For the Kashmiris, Coronavirus pandemic can transform into a chance to change their destiny. In the form of Covid-19, hope has sneaked in for the Kashmiris since it has built immense pressure upon the Modi government to deliver to the people. And that he cannot.
(Zunaz Arif is M.Phil Scholar of International Relations at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. The writer can be reached at zuniraja1@gmail.com)
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