WASHINGTON
\nAn American academic of Kashmiri origin has challenged India\u2019s democratic credentials by exposing its brutal repression in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as US President, Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d gets underway.
\nDr Hafsa Kanjwal, Assistant Professor of South Asian history at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post: \u201cKashmir\u2019s civil society is ending the year facing an assault on the basic democratic norms of freedom of expression and rule of law,\u201d
\nIndia is among 100 odd countries invited to participate in the virtual event. At the outset, Dr Kanjwal pointed to the recent, widely-condemned arrest of a Kashmiri human rights defender, Khurram Parvaiz, who works with the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), saying he is booked under India\u2019s draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a law that allows the government to designate someone as a \u201cterrorist\u201d and keep them in pretrial detention for years without needing to produce incriminating evidence.
\nDr. Kanjwal wrote: \u201cOn one level, it is odd to speak of a civil society space in Kashmir. India does not allow Kashmiris to gather, protest or express their political aspirations. This means that organizations and individuals in Kashmir are constantly under the gaze of a military occupation.
\n\u201cYet, intrepid Kashmiri human rights activists and organizations such as the JKCCS and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, as well as journalists and academics have overcome immense obstacles to highlight the impact of the Indian government and army\u2019s actions in Kashmir.
\n\u201cThey have experienced unrelenting attack since August 2019, when India fully annexed Kashmir by revoking the special status that gave it a measure of autonomy and accelerated the settler-colonial project that seeks to alter the demographics of the Muslim-majority disputed region.
\n\u201cSince then, Kashmiri journalists have been particularly hounded. A report in The Wire stated that more than 40 journalists have been \u2018called for a background check, summoned or raided\u2019 in the past two years. Some have been detained, and others have been booked under the UAPA.
\n\u201cIndeed, the UAPA has been used against people engaging in a range of human rights work or acts of resistance: from raising anti-India slogans at a funeral, to cheering for the Pakistani cricket team, to demanding the return of the body of a minor son shot and killed by Indian forces.
\n\u201cKashmiri journalists, writers and students are being denied passports or passport renewals\u2014 or, as reported by The Wire, been made to sign a \u2018bond\u2019 promising \u201cgood behavior\u201d to travel internationally. Those abroad for work or study fear going home, especially if they are vocal.
\n\u201cColleagues in Kashmir speak of a no-fly list. Journalists, activists and academics have either been visited or received calls by intelligence officials asking for information about their families, activities and history of employment, as well as financial, passport and property details.
\n\u201cNo one knows what the government plans to do with this information, but the intimidation is enough to instill fear. \u2018Do not message me directly unless I say hello first,\u2019 a colleague recently wrote to me. \u2018Our phones can be confiscated at any time\u2019.\u201d
\n\u201cRecently, Indian National Security adviser Ajit Doval claimed there should be \u201cfourth generation warfare\u201d against civil society. Fighting \u201cterror,\u201d therefore, is simply a pretense to silence Kashmiri voices that are raising awareness of India\u2019s decades-long human rights violations, in addition to criminalizing those who support Kashmir\u2019s freedom movement.
\n\u201cMoreover, India is slyly crafting a narrative of \u2018white-collar terrorism\u2019 to rebrand professionals who are sympathetic to the Kashmir freedom movement or critical of the Indian government as terrorists. Not only does this threaten the lives of members of Kashmir\u2019s civil society, but it also forces them to self-censor.
\n\u201cThese are the actions of a country that the Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently referred to as \u2018a force for good in defense of a free and open Indo-Pacific and a free and open world.\u2019
\n\u201cDespite these alarming recent developments, the Biden administration has largely ignored India\u2019s attempts to clamp down on civil society in Kashmir.
\n\u201cDuring the Cold War, the Soviet Union \u2014 India\u2019s ally \u2014 vetoed a number of important resolutions on Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council, effectively undermining any steps toward an internationally mediated solution.
\n\u201cToday, with the U.S. determination to secure India as an ally against China, as well as the formation of \u2018the Quad,\u2019 Kashmir remains hostage to international geopolitics. Democratic norms, once again, are only of concern when in line with U.S. foreign policy interests.
\nYet, when it comes to Kashmir, India is not simply engaging in \u2018democratic backsliding.\u2019 Rather, it is cementing its over seven-decade long autocratic, colonial rule. The Kashmiris at the receiving end of this are the ones truly fighting for a \u2018free and open world\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON An American academic of Kashmiri origin has challenged India\u2019s democratic credentials by exposing its brutal repression in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as US President, Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cSummit for Democracy\u201d gets underway. Dr Hafsa Kanjwal, Assistant Professor of South Asian history at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, wrote in an opinion piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-232014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n