Kashmir-Sir Fareed notes by Maha Tariq (OB-23)

Policies adopted by Modi to reverse special status of Kashmir

• What was the special status?

o Article 370

• With the exception of defence, foreign policy, communication and currency, Kashmir
was autonomous was in its internal affairs

o Article 35-A

• What was it? A non-Kashmiri Indian could not purchase land in Kashmir i.e. cannot
acquire a domicile or citizenship in Kashmir

o August 5, 2019

• Modi government reversed the special status of Kashmir which were given above
the aforementioned articles

o What was the procedure? The governor of Kashmir advised the president of India to issue an
ordinance for reversing the special status.
- And the president issued the ordinance and it was ratified and endorsed in the India
parliament (rajia Sabha and lok Sabha); 2/3 majority

• What are Modi government supporters saying?

o Special status given to Kashmir under articles above were not permanent and were
added to the constitution via a presidential ordinance-the same procedure adopted
for removing the special status. (Article 370 was added in 1949 through a
presidential ordinance approved/endorsed by the parliament and 35-A was added in
1954) and parliament endorsed it

• What do they say?

o There has not been any unconstitutional activity

• Counter opinion

o Point shared by INDIAN FEDERALISTS (i.e. legal experts)

• Special status could not be reversed the way it was added to the Indian
Constitution (there is a clear-cut procedure in the constitution)

§ What is the procedure? When power is devolved into the units then
they could be reversed only with the consent of the legislative
assembly of that state/unit
 § It can only be reversed if the consent is given by the legislative
assembly. Procedure: Kashmir Assembly will pass the resolution
with a 2/3 majority

§ Once the Kashmir assembly passes with 2/3 majority then the Indian
parliament will have to pass the same resolution with a 2/3 majority

§ President would then sign it

• This is the legitimate procedure and the one they have adopted goes against this procedure

• The governor does have powers under emergency i.e. advisory powers which are on only
financial and administrative matters to the president and NOT on constitutional or legal
matter. This was a legal issue

o PAKISTAN

o INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

• Reversing the special status of Kashmir is not a violation of Indian constitution but
also a violation the international law. UN Charter is the international law. There was
a resolution passed in 1948 over Kashmir which underscored that neither India nor
Pakistan can make changes (legal, demographic or geographic) to the present status
of Kashmir until a referendum is not conducted in kashmir.

• India has made LEGAL changes with the aim to bring a demographic change-a
violation of the UN resolution.

• Modi government not only violated the Indian constitution and international law but
also the Simla agreement of 1972
§ Agreement Article 2(B)

• Neither India nor Pakistan can unilaterally change the present status
of Kashmir. Whatever changes are to be made will occur with a
bilateral agreement.

Modi took legal changes, their experts stance and then countered it.
• Opponents stance/opinion and then countered it you will score more.
• Top priority yehi ha exam ki

Point explained. Legal.

Administrative changes in Kashmir

1. The status of a state of Kashmir has been taken away. Not merely the special status but also
the status of a state has been snatched from Kashmir and now it is divided into two union
territories (Jammu and Kashmir Valley and Valley)
 o Union territory comes under the rule of president via the governor and elected
government there is, therefore, not powerful anymore.

The status of a state has been taken away. The administrative law of Kashmir has been amended
(comes under legal and administrative categories).

How?

The restriction over the purchase of land has been abolished for non-Kashmiri Indians. There was
previously a restriction on it and anyone can now buy land and become the citizen of Kashmir.

Two changes thus far.

Thirdly, imposing curfews. The longest ever curfew in the history of Kashmir. August 5, 2019 till
today there is a curfew in Kashmir.

Salient features of the curfew:

• Longest curfew

• Print media closed

• Social media closed

• Telecommunications closed

S.144 has been imposed in Kashmir

Meaning: crowd gathering not allowed inc. protests.

Excessive use of Special Protection Act. This is part of the Kashmir Administrative Law.
According to which any Kashmiri can be detained or put under house arrest without any charge for 2
years.

Majority of the political leadership remained detained and put under house arrest. After that more
than 13,000 youth were detained under the special protection act.
Additionally, the Indian security forces are not answerable in the court of law for their human rights
violations in held Kashmir.

More than 800,000 troops are deployed in IOK

(Above is all that Modi has done-this is not a critique)

(Only a legal critique done for now)

Modt took legal and adms

Modi government's political strategy

Policy of BJP-Kashmir Wing has been:

• Mission 44, 2014
• What? Secure 44 out of 87 seats in the Kashmir Assembly
o Get a simple majority in the Kashmir assembly to make a government with
independent candidates to secure 2/3 majority

o Then pass a resolution from the Kashmir assembly to reverse the special status. But
this policy failed miserably inspite of the fact that only 2% turnover of votes and
even within it it secured 27 seats and People's Democratic Party won the majority.
BJP then entered a coalition government with the PDP.

o Then in 2018, BJP moved out of the coalition government and the elected
government was dissolved and governor raj was imposed. When? Just before the
national election because they wanted to win in the national elections. At the
national level!

Elections due in 2019,

Kashmir wing of BJP and its policies.

The BJP appointed a governor, a Hindutva leader. The political leadership of Kashmir is corrupt.

Resultantly, they did not transfer socio-economic benefits/developments of Kashmiris. BJP wants to
get rid of corrupt leadership. How will that be possible? Only when the special status is remved and
the centre has a greater role to play in Kashmiri politics hence the reversal of the special staus was
necessary to bring socio-economic development in Kashmir. (This is kashmir based)

What was the national level policies?

One country, one law. Why have a special status? India is a FEDERATION comprising of a number of
states and they have equal status. Why should kashmir be treated differently? If BJP elected to
government, it'll abolish the special status. This was central in BJP's election manifesto in 2019 and
2014).

What did BJP do in national level?

If BJP elected to the government, it would revoke article 35-A. Why? The muslim majority state
would be converted into a Hindu majority state. by means of purchasing land and settling there)

Diplomatic policy
The 'economic card' of India was played well by Modi government and BJP to diffuse the
international opposition. How? With the exception of China, Turkey and Malaysia majority of the
world's government did not outrightly criticize Modi.

US did not. Why? India is a huge defence and non-defence market for US. Secondly, Europe, namely
UK, Germany, France, did not either. Defence and general product exporting markets. For majority,
India is important against China.

Middle East (specifically, KSA, UAE) and Iran did not object to India outrightly on the reversal of
special status. India is one of the largest oil and gas market.

Reversing the special status of Kashmir is purely an internal matter of India. How? The indian
constitution is amended (Article 370, 35-A)-an internal affair. Therefore no external intervention,
opposition or comments would be appreciated/welcomed by India because of is "internal" nature.

Kashmir is a bilateral issue and it will be bilaterally solved without the role of a third party. India has
created this stance since 1972 from Simla Agreement wherein which Pakistan agreed to a bilateral
solution.

India tried to diverting the international attention from freedom struggle to that of terrorism and
this has been a policy since 2001. It holds Pakistan responsible for attacks in Kashmir and then try to
carry out fake surgical (2016) and aerial strikes (2019).

Therefore, freedom struggle depicterd as terrrorism and blaming pakistan for it. And failed attempts
of sur

***Failed aerial strikes

Response of Kashmiris:

The POLITICAL LEADERSHIP in Kashmir

• Mehbooba Mufti (ex-CM), "Not going with Pakistan in 1947 on the basis of two nation
theory was a blunder made by our elders because of which the present generation of
Kashmir is suffering."

• Farooq Abdullah (a strong supporter of India), "You can kill us. You can detain us. You can do
anything but you cannot deprive us of our autonomy." ^The same words are followed by
Omar Abdullah. Their party is National Conference.

• PDP and NC favoured india but for the first time they spoke up against India. In 2021,
political leaders met modi and no one deviated from their stances that cooperation of the
modi government will not occur until the special status of Kashmir is not restored.

13000 kashmiris have been detained. Inspite of curfew ans communication blackouts, protests
continued in Kashmir. 13000+ political leadersip detained.

Response of Indian opposition parties:

Congress

The opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha (upper house), the prisons in Kashmir are full. Rest houses
declared as prisons are also full. There are a number of unidentified detention houses where
Kashmiris are detained. Many Kashmiris shifted to prison in other parts of the country.

Another Congress leader, Sashi Tharoor, claimed that Modi proved Jinnah right. i.e. the division of
the subcontinent on the basis of two-nation theory was a right decision made by Jinnah

Modi made India Israel and turned Kashmir into another Palestine.

Kashmir v. Palestine

1. Both are occupied territories

2. There are violations of UNSC resolutions

3. Atrocities (inc. HR violations) are a commonplace in Kashmir and Israel

4. Attempts of demographic changes i.e. in Kashmir converting the muslim majority state
into a minority to pave way for Hindu majority.

5. Both (Kashmir and Palestine) are muslim majority regions

6. UN and OIC have both failed to address this issue

7. Both have an ongoing freedom struggle movement

8. Also IDPs

Response of the world

1. International governments

2. International and regional organizations (UNHCR has submitted 2 reports; Amnesty

international has submitted 1 report on HR violation)

3. ICJ has opined on the issue that the reversal of the special status is not merely a violation of
the indian constitution but also a violation of international law

4. International media inc. big media hubs focused on HR violations of the Modi govt.

Policy of Pakistan post August 5, 2019 (Question in 2020)

4 prong/dimensional approach adopted by Pakistan:

1. Public mobilization (by protesting of Pakistani, Kashmiris and Sikh brethren) in Pakistan, in
AJK and across the world inc. London, NY, Washington, Brussel, etc.
 2. Accessing the world media e.g. Washington post had an 8 page pictural coverage given to HR
violation in Kashmir (paid by the Embassy of Pakistan). Similarly, internationally, we reached
out to humanitarian authors to write on the issue.

3. Accessing world and regional organizations. E.g. UNSC platform took up the issue after 54
years and the credit goes to the Foreign ministry. EU parliament had a 3 hour long session
(credit to foreign minister of Pakistan. OIC's press release. President of UNGA's statement in
favour of Kashmiris.

4. Access to International leadership. 1. Governments. 2. Opposition Leaders. 3. Either

visits/calls 4.UNGA and WeF excessively used. We engaged with 70+ leaders to build
pressure against the indian violations

These were only approaches.

POLICY POINTS IN FOCUS

Legal policy (has been explained)

Administrative v. Political Policy options

BJP is an offshoot of Hindutva. Nowadays, Hindutva aka 'Modiutva' coined by Pakistan. How is BJP an
extremist party and an offshoot of Hindutva?

Salient features of Hindutva:

1. Akhand Bharat (India as a state must expand) on one hand from Afghanistan to Indonesia
because these areas prev. belonged to Hindus

2. HINDUS should have the right to citizenship and Muslim and Christians should have second
rate citizenship rights because they are either invaders, settlers or converters.

3. The government in India must promote Hinduism i.e. be an ideological state supporting
Hindu ideology and not be a secular state

4. RSS and BJP policies. There are 1400 mosques across India which should be demolished and
in their place, develop temples. They started with the destruction/demolish of the Babri
mosque in 1992 and in 2020 the construction of Ram temple was initiated wherein the
foundation stone laid by Modi.

5. CAA (2019). All settlers in India from neighbouring countries would be given Indian
citizenship but not Muslims. Therefore, the Muslims of Assam (mostly Bangla originated
Muslims or Rohingya Muslims) had to prove citizenships by NRC. Interior minister, Amit
Shah.

6. Muslims were held responsible for Corona.

(similarly across these lines)

Kashmir
1. UNHCR, Amnesty international report, International media (HR violations)

2. Political leadership of Kashmir

3. Opposition leaders in Indian parliament

4. Diplomatic efforts

o India wants to bring a demographic change in Kashmir (muslim majority to minority)

o Article 35-A and administrative law of Kashmir amended with the prime objective is to bring
a demographic change to facilitate the Hindus to purchase land in Kashmir to become
Kashmiri citizens which will consequently convert the muslim majority areas into hindu
majority areas. Why? India knows well that it MUST conduct a referendum in Kashmir
sooner or later because India wants to become a permanent member of the UNSC. It cannot
become a permanent member until it remains a violator of a UN resolution. Therefore India
intends to conduct a referendum in Kashmir but it wouldn’t do so until the demographic
change is not bought around the Kashmir area.

o India can not always project freedom struggle in Kashmir as terrorism and can not always
blame Pakistan for whatever happens in Kashmir. India would need to accept that Kashmir
movement is an indigenous movement. Had it not been so, then university students, youth
and Kashmiri people would not always be protesting, demanding freedom. The world must
read the story of Burhan Wani and the like in their transition to armed resistence. Stories are
similar, because they combat in their way to fight the atrocities that Indian forces commit on
their lands.

o It can not always blame Pakistan for every attack in Kashmir. E.g. the Uri attack was done by
Kashmiris as not a single weapon of Pakistan was found there. Secondly, Pulwama (a suicide
attack) was carried out by a Kashmiri who had a similar story wherein the person committing
suicide (along with his family) was a victim of Indian atrocities. Whenever India carries out
aerial or surgical strikes, Pakistan would (and will) befittingly reply. E.g. the Feb, 2019 failed
attempt of an aerial strike on Pakistan. Such skirmishes could lead to a major war because
Kashmir is the bone of contention between the two countries and until Kashmir is an issue,
India will continue to make its attempts and Pakistan will retaliate. If there is ever to be a
war between the two countries now, it will predominantly be a nuclear war.
The impacts of a nuclear war will not be limited to these two countries or to south Asia and
Asia, but on the whole world
o (UNGA speech Pakistan PM)

India and Pakistan are at war with each other because of the failure of global powers,
namely UNSC and P5, to implement the resolution of '48.

The world government/powers must decide if HR are more important than economic
rights/interests.