J K NEWS TODAY COMMENTARY
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech in the capital city of Muzaffarabad of the Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Friday was childish, to say the least. He declared so many things in the supposed “solidarity with the people of Kashmir,” whom he described as “victims” of India, that it became difficult to make a sense as to what exactly he had wanted to tell the Kashmiris on his side of the LoC and the world at large. In short, he made a mockery of his own, Pakistan and its leadership.
Before dwelling on what he said, and what it meant, or, meant nothing at all., it was disgusting the way, he addressed the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Modi”, the scream with which he named the Indian Prime Minister was well below the street fight name calling. Imran should have had the decency and civility to address the Indian Prime Minister who is in chair with a thumping majority of the people who voted for him in the April-May parliamentary elections. There is something called diplomatic and political diplomacy, that Imran forgot, or did it deliberately as an urchin at a rally where he wanted to project himself as an “ambassador” of Kashmiris.
First of all, he should have known what the word ambassador stands for and what it means, and how that profile is acquired. The ambassadorship is another name of decency, putting across the point of view in a civilized and subtle manner. So that is the biggest failure of Imran Khan. Does he think that with this backdrop of ugly noises, he would be able to please the world and convince the world capitals that he is ambassador of Kashmiris. He should have known that Kashmiris represent a culture of their own in which the decency and civility define them.
Imran Khan said that he would make the world aware of what Kashmiris are undergoing, “curfew, clampdown and the atrocities of 9 million Indian army soldiers.” Khan is unaware or pretending that most of the restrictions that were imposed in the Valley after Article 370 and Article 35 A which had granted special status and privileges to them until August 5 had been lifted. The life was near normal in Kashmir- there are people going to work, attending offices in the civil secretariat where only Indian national tricolour flutters now. There are certain difficulties but these are being addressed one by one.
He also said that he would raise Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly. That is what all his predecessors have done in the past with a zero result in their hands at the end of the day. He is entitled to try his luck.
How is UN involved in this purely internal matter of India? The two constitutional provisions in question were inscribed in the Indian constitution, and the Indian Parliament is the supreme body to do away with any of the provisions with a two-third majority. Moreover, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had declared on the floor of the Indian parliament that Article 370 was temporary, so it had to go. The temporary things cannot be preserved in the constitution forever, especially when these become discriminatory and are seen as a challenge to the nation’s sovereignty in its own states or union territories.
Imran Khan should have read history before talking about this, and asking the youth in Kashmir to pick up guns or repeat what the suicide bomber Adil Dar did in Pulwama on February 14, that the Article 370 and the UN resolutions of 1948-49 had no connection whatsoever. Those resolutions were passed only after Pakistan army sponsored tribesmen had invaded the state of Jammu and Kashmir ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh. Pakistan’s attack was in violation of the international laws. Imran would do better to study few chapters of history before indulging in hyperbolic rhetoric.
