washington
\n\u201cOn January 26, 2025, India is celebrating its 76th Republic Day to honor its constitution that became enforceable on January 26 in 1950. We extend our warm felicitation to the people of India on their Republic Day celebration. India certainly has the right to observe this historic day within its legal boundary. Now its celebration goes beyond its legal confines when its festivities are carried out in the disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The international community until today does not accept Kashmir to be an integral part of any member state of the United Nations. According to more than 16 substantive UN Security Council resolutions, Kashmir\u2019s final settlement has yet to be decided by its people, said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice.\u201d
\nIt is very eye-opening to note that the government of India knows it well that the people of Kashmir do not want to be the part of the Republic Day celebration. That is why the District Magistrate Srinagar (Capital city of Kashmir) issued an \u201cOrder\u201d on January 23, 2025 which says, \u201cRegarding the participation in the Republic Day, it is enjoined upon the HoDs\/District\/Sectoral Officers falling within the territorial jurisdiction of District Srinagar to attend the main function of Republic Day, 2025 along with their subordinate Officers\/Officials scheduled to be held at Bakshi Stadium, Srinagar on 26th January 2025 as a part of the official duty. Further, all departments should nominate one Senior Officer to mark the attendance of their staff.\u201d
\nIt reminds me the visit of Narendra Modi Ji when he addressed the public on March 7, 2024, at the same place, Bakshi Stadium. New Delhi based \u201cThe Hindu\u201d wrote on March 8, 2024 that \u2018Employees forced to attend PM Modi\u2019s Srinagar rally, say Mehbooba, Omar.\u2019 The Hindu quoted Omar Abdullah who is the current Chief Minister saying that \u201cEmployees, men and women, both in their thousands are being asked to assemble between 4:30 AM & 5:30 AM in the freezing temperatures to be bused to the venue. This participation isn\u2019t optional, it\u2019s compulsory. Employees who don\u2019t show up are being threatened with disciplinary action by their department heads. Private schools like DPS (Delhi Public School) etc. have had their buses commandeered.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant. Governor of Jammu & Kashmir and apparent ventriloquist dummy for some folks has said that he will preside over and take the salute at the main Republic Day function on January 26, 2025, at MA Stadium in Jammu.
\nLast year, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha also extended his greetings and felicitations to the people of Jammu & Kashmir on the occasion of 75th Republic Day. He said that there was great transformation in every sphere of activity incurring tourism that has taken place in the UT under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He said the dawn of development had started paying dividends to the common man.\u201d
\nThese comments of Manoj Sinha Ji sound like nice words, sort of like you might have heard in the sixties in the West\u2019s hippie movement, with the Beatle crooning, \u201cAll You Need Is Love.\u201d But in Kashmir where such a speech is accompanied by tightened security measures with drones flying overhead and heavily armed men (more than 900,000 military and a paramilitary forces) and vehicles have shut off all access, it is hardly reminiscent of a lovefest in Berkeley, nor does it reflect the spirit in which a constitution creating democratic process in the Republic of India would otherwise exhibit. One might think of Bob Dylan\u2019s song, \u201cHow many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?\u201d Likewise, how many roads must Kashmiris walk, it must be asked, before they are given their independence?
\nDr. Fai added that the unilateral actions of RSS led BJP\u2019s government on August 5, 2019, was an apparent violation of UN Security Council, resolution #91 of 1951 and #122 of 1957. Subsequently, India enacted Domicile Law which was designed to change the demography of Kashmir. By pursuing these measures, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India wants to convey to the people of Kashmir that they are the property of the state, and they have no right to decide their future according to their own free will.
\nModi Ji has forgotten what his predecessor, Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru, then the prime minister of India said on 20 August 1953, \u201cPeople seem to forget that Kashmir is not a commodity for sale or to be bartered. It has an individual existence, and its people must be the final arbiters of their future.\u201d Yet, these promises are now 78 years old. But does its age diminish its relevance or reduce its applicability, one may ask? To assert so is to concede primacy to the law of jungle.
\nIt is evident that maintaining the status quo in Kashmir is not conducive to a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Tensions on both sides continue to spiral upward and the denial of the self-determination to the people of Kashmir has raised stakes considerably. I believe that the consistent application of human rights standards would allow a just peaceful resolution of the seventy-eighth year old conflict over Kashmir. It would directly help India to extricate itself from the quagmire of international conflicts and accumulation of weaponry, to realize its economic and technological potential and truly rise to the stature of a great power. It would also release Pakistan from a crippling burden. It would thus bring the lasting credit to the United States foreign policy. The refusal of omission to take a well-considered initiative neither responds to a long-term peace strategy nor answers the demand of the human conscience.
\nFor the sake of peace and international security, it is necessary to find a solution of the Kashmir dispute. As we know that Kashmir is located in the center of the most strategic areas in the world and shares border with three nuclear countries \u2013 India, Pakistan & China \u2013 which makes the present situation too dangerous. It must not be allowed to go on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
washington \u201cOn January 26, 2025, India is celebrating its 76th Republic Day to honor its constitution that became enforceable on January 26 in 1950. We extend our warm felicitation to the people of India on their Republic Day celebration. India certainly has the right to observe this historic day within its legal boundary. Now its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-457644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n