Indian Prime minister Narasimha Rao told a mass rally in south India last week that his government would solve the Kashmir problem in the same patient way as it did in Punjab. He said that the Hazratbal issue too had been sorted out with patience.
AS are result of this policy the prime minister claimed Punjab had become the most peaceful state in the country. A few ministers of the Rao government also have started talking in terms of restoring democratic process in Kashmir as was done in Punjab Former Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has started making forays into Jammu at the instance of the Indian government He met governor Krishna Rao. The latter advised him to activate his supporters to win the public confidence.
Despite Raos talk of patience the Indian government is quite worried about the internationalization of the Kashmir dispute. President Clinton’s letter to a Kashmir group leader supporting the cause of Kashmiris human rights has come to be viewed in India as a shock. Earlier India had been jolted by the reference to Kashmir s5.an international trouble spot by the Vice President when he addressed the U.N. general assembly. The U.S. administrations Kashmir policy had been repeatedly explained by successor officers of the government dealing with affairs of south East Asia. India tried its best to have this policy reversed in Indias favor but to no avail so far. It was obviously under the U_S. pressure that India agreed to talk to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. These talks have been totally fruitless but U.S. officers appear consoled by the fact that Delhi at least had agreed to discuss Kashmir.
It is an absurd Indian claim that the Punjab problem had been resolved. The whole world is aware of the unprecedented massacre of Sikhs at the hands of the Indian state in the past one decade. Several respected international human rights groups such as Amnesty International Asia Watch etc have testified to the Indian repression in Punjab. Even today when India claims normalcy in Punjab representatives of A.I. Asia Watch and other such groups are not allowed entry Into Punjab to assess the human rights situation for themselves. Only last week a Canadian minister Herb Dhaliwal visited Punjab and made on-the Spot investigations and his observations are a damning proof of the fascist Indian ways of dealing with the supporters of Khalistan in Punjab. Dhaliwal has said that the whereabouts of numerous Sikh youths are not known.
It is an accepted fact that thousands of Sikh youths have been rotting in Indian jails although the police do not acknowledge more than a few hundred such cases mostly the youths are in illegal police custody and they are selectively being killed in face encounters after subjecting them to brutal torture. Even Akalis who could not be associated with any sort of violence have been denied permission even to squat in protest against the Indian policies. Popular peasant leaders like Ajmer Singh Lakhowal and Gurbachan Singh Bharmian had been detained for months essentially to gag them against speaking against exploitation of Punjab and its peasantry by India. These leaders were kept in illegal custody and were hastily released last week after their Supporters requested Punjab High Court to cause their production in the court In last year’s election as many as 80% voters had abstained from voting to protest against the Indian policy. The Beant Singh government was installed in power despite the fact that it commanded less than 10% backing from the states electorate. The Hindu media is out to lionize
this tin pot dictator as a great leader of the masses Meanwhile the police chief says that the Indian army would not be pulled out of Punjab. Is that how the Punjab problem had been solved?
India is toying with a similar solution to the Kashmir problem Indias intelligence-trained journalists are being taken to Kashmir. Stories on the alleged disputes among militants are being planted.
It is claimed that 1300 militants were killed in 1993 in gang wars. Also there is propaganda of the Kashmiri militants indulging in criminal activities to discredit the freedom movement in the eyes of ordinary people of the valley. These are the very same tactics that were successfully employed by the Indian intelligence in Punjab. But the total unity of the Kashmir people in favor of freedom and the racial differences between the people of Kashmir and the rest of north Indians are the two important factors that are likely to frustrate the Indian war of disruption in the valley At the same time the people of Kashmir are being made to undergo immense suffering. Dozens of youths are being picked up and killed daily by the Indian security forces. All this is happening when India is talking peace to Pakistan the fact is that the Indian repression in Kashmir is mounting even as international pressure on Delhi is increasing. India is hustling through a Hitlerite solution to the Kashmir problem.
The world public opinion more particularly the US President should appreciate the fact that there is the need for an appropriate International response to Indian repression as early as possible. The daily massacres of the people of Kashmir have to be stopped forthwith. That could be done by temporarily putting Kashmir under the UN charge pending talks on the issue. The Chinese support to the Indian government on the Kashmir issue should strengthen the international resolve to save the people of Kashmir from Indian imperialism just as the people of Tibet need to be rescued from the Chinese occupation
Article extracted from this publication >> January 14, 1994
