Indian Press on Interfaith Marriage, AMU and PM Modi: New Age Islam's Selection, 22 December 2020
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
22 December 2020
• An Interfaith Couple Faced Violence, A Miscarriage
And Arrest. We Can't Say 'No Harm Done'
By Kavita Krishnan
• AMU Is the Intellectual Capital of Muslims in the
World … When PM Talks It’ll Have A Positive Effect’
By Sanjeev Singh
• When PM Modi Speaks At AMU Today, He Could Underline
His Resolve To Preserve, Defend University’s Character
By Faizan Mustafa
• Decoding Pakistan’s New Verbal Assaults
By Harsha Kakar
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An Interfaith Couple Faced Violence, a Miscarriage and
Arrest. We Can't Say 'No Harm Done'
By Kavita Krishnan
22 December 2020
Rashid and his brother
Salim reuniting with their family after being released from custody. Photo:
Kavita Krishnan
------
At first glance, what strikes you about Muskan (Pinky) is
how skinny and frail she looks, huddled in bed under a blanket: a far cry from
her glowing self in the photograph of herself with Rashd which made it to the
Telegraph UK story on her forced abortion.
Mohammad Sartaj Alam, one of the journalists who broke the
story, had advised Muskan’s mother-in-law to get a fresh ultrasound in some
hospital outside Moradabad district. So Muskan was taken to Bijnor, where she
got an ultrasound done at a private clinic. The report reads, clearly
“RPC/blood clots in UT”. This shows that there are “retained products of
conception” (foetal matter left over after a miscarriage or abortion) in her
uterus. We sent this ultrasound report to a senior gynaecologist, Dr Puneet Bedi,
in Delhi, and had Muskan speak to him on phone. She told him she continued to
bleed and experience pain. He explained to her, and to us, that it is standard
practice to prescribe a course of antibiotics and painkillers after any
miscarriage (whether it was spontaneous or induced by abortifacients). Failing
this, uterine infections could develop, which might even prevent future
pregnancies.
Muskan has alleged that the District Women’s Hospital in
Moradabad where she was taken while in police custody, injected her with
abortifacients to induce an abortion. The hospital denies this – but their
denial rings false because of their suspicious conduct. They declared that no
miscarriage had occurred – which is now proven to be a lie. Most shockingly, in
actions that befit a Mengele, they did not prescribe any antibiotics to Muskan
after the miscarriage. Surely they knew that this could mean that she might
lose her ability to ever bear a child? They also withheld Muskan’s treatment
papers from her, though she asked for them.
Kawalpreet Kaur from the All India Students’ Association and
Sneha, an advocate from the Human Rights Law Network, went to buy the medicines
Dr Bedi had prescribed, as Muskan made an effort to sit up and speak to me. Her
mother-in-law, Naseema, and two aunts of Rashid’s who have come down from
Uttarakhand, ask me whether it is safe to give her eggs, meat and ghee to
strengthen her up. She has been wasting away from blood loss, weakness, sorrow
at the miscarriage and worry for Rashid’s wellbeing, they tell me.
Asked about how she and Rashid met, she hid a little smile:
the memory still brought her joy. She has a BA degree, and she was living alone
and working in a financial company in Dehradun, when she met Rashid, who ran a
saloon. They courted each other for over a year, then got married in July 2020.
Naseema told us that after the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of
Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 was passed, she began to worry
about her son and daughter-in-law. She knew they had done a nikah ceremony in
July 2020 in Dehradun, after duly informing the SP Dehradun as required by
Uttarakhand’s own Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act 2018. Since then, they
had been living together happily, and Muskan was pregnant. But Naseema was
uneasy, hearing all the hateful warnings issued by the UP chief minister and
other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders against interfaith relationships. She
asked a lawyer, Deepak, whether it was advisable for the couple to get the
marriage registered, to protect them from any harassment. He told her that the
marriage must be registered, and took Rs 5,000 from her to get the documents
uploaded and the marriage registered. Either he, or someone in the bureaucracy
who was part of the registration process, must have informed the Bajrang Dal.
Muskan describes how, on December 5, she, Naseema and
Rashid’s brother Salim were accosted by a violent Bajrang Dal mob on their way
to get the marriage registered. The mob abused them, slapped and roughed up
Salim, and videotaped the whole episode. I found a video on Facebook of some
part of this heckling. It is striking to see how calm and confident Muskan
manages to remain, in the face of the Bajrang Dal thugs. They tell her, “You
have to get permission from the DM to get married – they’ve had to make a law
for the likes of you.” Asked on camera if her father or “guardian” has given
her permission to marry Rashid, she replies, “I am an adult, I am 22, I have
married him of my own choice five months ago.”
The Bajrang Dal got Muskan’s mother to the police station,
and induced her to file an FIR alleging that Rashid had masqueraded as a Hindu
to seduce her daughter, who is from a Scheduled Caste. Muskan scoffed when I
asked her about this: “I am an adult, I know my own mind, and I was living on
my own when I met Rashid. I knew full well he was Muslim. We loved each other.
I converted to Islam of my own accord, and we both got married. My mother does
not know him, she has just parroted whatever the Bajrang Dal men asked her to.”
Why did Muskan need to convert to Islam, and why did Rashid
and she choose a nikah ceremony rather than registration under the Special
Marriage Act? Muskan’s experience of trying to get her marriage registered
answers that riddle quite well. The SMA or registration process discriminates
against couples. It places hurdles that couples who marry under the Hindu or
Muslim or Christian or other religious laws do not face. Unlike religious
ceremonies, the SMA process requires a couple to put up a public notice of
their intention to marry, and allow a month’s interval for anyone to raise an
objection to the marriage. Informers within the bureaucracy alert the
Hindu-supremacist outfits, and they spring into action to separate the couple,
unleash violence and prevent the marriage. In the case of Muskan and Rashid
also, the Bajrang Dal thug-in-chief who interfered boasts that he has a network
of informers everywhere.
It is to avoid this kind of violence that couples choose a
religious ceremony. Since patriarchal objections to the marriage are most
likely to be raised by the woman’s community, it is the women in such
relationships who tend to convert to their partner’s faith. In another recent
instance in UP, a Muslim woman converted to the Hindu faith to marry Naman, a
Hindu young man.
On the day we visited Muskan, Rashid and Salim were released
from prison. The police itself had filed a petition under Section 169 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure, informing a magistrate that they lacked evidence
against the accused. But, as Muskan told us, the police knew the truth from the
start. Yet, they acted to appease the Bajrang Dal thugs rather than punish them
for their attempts to terrorise an interfaith couple. It is no wonder that
Hindu supremacist thugs in UP act like a shadow government – after all, one of
their own is the chief minister. When Adityanath issues death threats to Muslim
men who love and marry Hindu women, he is promising the thugs his blessing and
protection.
So on December 5, what was to be a happy and festive
occasion turned into a nightmare. Rashid and his brother Salim were taken away
to prison, Muskan was taken into a “shelter home”, and Rashid’s younger brother
Nasir escaped a mob of Bajrang Dal thugs who were out to lynch him.
What Muskan told us about the shelter home was not
surprising. “It is a prison, women are tortured there,” she said, adding that
there are other adult women imprisoned there for the crime of loving someone
from a different caste or faith. “Their parents claim they are minors, and they
are kept there, prevented from having mobile phones. No one but their own
parents are allowed to meet women incarcerated in these “shelter” homes, they
are made to cook and clean, and the staff bully them. They are told that they
can be free from the “shelter home” only if they agree to give up their
relationship and be released into parental custody.”
The police and shelter home authorities knew Muskan was
pregnant. Yet she was taken away from a loving home, violently separated from
her husband who was jailed, and taken into custody as though she were a
criminal. A few days later, she began to develop abdominal pains. The shelter
home authorities said she was making it all up. When the pain became
unbearable, she was eventually taken to hospital on December 11, where she was
admitted, and, except for a brief interval, remained till December 14. She says
that she was given tablets and injections by the hospital authorities, after
which she miscarried.
When Muskan was still in custody, I had heard a recording of
a phone call she had managed to make to her mother-in-law. I asked Muskan how
she managed to make the call. She said one could bribe the shelter home staff
to use a phone. With great presence of mind, she recalled Naseema’s number and
managed to call and tell her that she suspected she had been forced to
miscarry.
When Rashid and Salim come home, Naseema and the boys’ aunts
embrace them fiercely. Rashid and Salim are weeping. Rashid comes over to
Muskan and holds her, and both are in tears. As media cameras flash and TV
journalists keep asking questions, Rashid whispers to Muskan. He is obviously
devastated at her weak appearance.
But Rashid and Salim are both guarded in what they say about
the police. They were escorted into their own home by an officious, grim and
unsmiling man in a black suit, who kept saying to the family “What are all the
tears for, it is all okay now, all is now well.” This man kept trying to
disperse the media as well as activists like us. A friend of the family
whispered to me that this man worked with the police, and his presence was
meant to remind Rashid and Salim that they were being watched.
Rashid’s is a very poor, working class household in Kanth
village in UP’s Moradabad district. Naseema has had to spend a lot of money in
bribes. Without bribes, she said, it was impossible to get warm clothes to her
daughter-in-law in the shelter home, nor to her sons who were being held
captive in a quarantine centre.
By the police’s own admission, there is no evidence that
Muskan, Rashid or Salim had committed any crime. Their arrest and detention was
clearly illegal. The officious man in a suit may say “no harm has been done and
all is well”, but in fact, Muskan and Rashid and their loved ones are all
victims of a series of violent acts by the Bajrang Dal, and by a range of UP
government authorities including the police, shelter home and hospital.
It would be truly obscene if we, the people of India, too
say “no harm done”, shrug and look the other way.
A loving husband and wife were violently attacked by an
outfit which, by its own admission, trains its members in violence and makes a
habit of separating interfaith couples. The police, instead of acting against
the thugs, illegally arrested the victims of the violence. A pregnant woman was
subjected to trauma. Whether as a result of the trauma or as a result of forced
administration of abortifacients, she suffered a miscarriage. The authorities
lied, denied the miscarriage, and in order to protect the lie, failed to
protect her from a possible uterine infection that could affect child-bearing
in the future. In two weeks, a pregnant bride in the pink of health has been
reduced to a shadow of herself.
UP’s anti-love ordinance is a blood-purity law to rival Nazi
Germany’s Nuremberg laws. Muskan’s and Rashid’s case is not a “misuse” of the
law. The only “use” of such an ordinance is to give legal cover to Hindu
supremacist thugs who inflict violence on interfaith couples. It is not enough
for such ordinances to be struck down and declared unconstitutional by courts.
Courts, if they are to do their duty, must order a
countrywide probe into the violent Hindu supremacist outfits that terrorise
interfaith couples, and their enablers embedded in the police and
administration. They must mandate changes in the Special Marriage Act to do
away with the month-long notice period. The Supreme Court’s right to privacy
judgement must not just be an elegant piece of prose for the history books.
Courts must act to protect the right of interfaith, inter-caste and same-sex couples
to privacy, so that any government employee who leaks information about
impending marriages to vigilante groups, should lose his job and face
prosecution.
And last, but not least, all laws seeking to restrict
conversion must be struck down. Faith, like love and marriage, is a private
affair. The state cannot claim authority to ask adult individuals to furnish
justifications for their decision to convert, or to marry.
----
Kavita Krishnan is secretary of the All India Progressive
Women’s Association (AIPWA).
https://thewire.in/communalism/up-moradabad-interfaith-couple-miscarriage-bajrang-dal
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AMU Is the Intellectual Capital of Muslims in the World …
When PM Talks It’ll Have A Positive Effect’
By Sanjeev Singh
December 22, 2020
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually attend the
centenary celebrations of the Aligarh Muslim University today. He will be the
first PM after Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 to deliver the address at AMU.
Sanjeev Singh and Nalin Mehta spoke to Shafey Kidwai, a professor and member
in-charge of PRO at AMU, on the significance of the occasion:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the
centenary event on the 22nd of December, what was the thought process behind
this entire event and this concept?
You see, we are celebrating our 100 years of completion of
the university. That’s why we think it’s important that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and President Ramnath Kovind should be invited along with other leading
personalities. Our vice-chancellor thought about this as the PM had recently
attended the function at Lucknow University. So that’s why we thought that it
would be very appropriate to speak to him and request him to address our
students and we want to initiate a good dialogue.
In the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of friction between
the university and the government. Do you want to leave that behind and move
on?
Yes, there are so many misconceptions right now because
there is no dialogue. We just want to initiate a dialogue with a new beginning
during our centenary year. We must bring people together and hope we can
achieve success in every sphere of life. Our aim is to bring people together
and leave behind all kinds of dissension or differences like we did to build
and make progress with this institution.
AMU has such a rich, past and heritage. But recently some
members of the Sangh Parivar etc, have been creating issues around the
university. How does the university view local political intervention?
There are so many local compulsions and AMU is a soft
target. They know what they are seeing is not true, but they just hurl abuses
and make wild allegations. But it is different when we approach the central
leadership. Recently, in two meetings, the Union education minister praised AMU
for its secular credentials and academic achievements. This had a soothing
effect. When the minister spoke, there was a lull, otherwise local leaders keep
making wild accusations almost every day.
AMU students protested against the CAA NRC Bill and have
extended support to protesting farmers in Delhi. How do you view these
protests?
In a democracy, yes, you have a right to protest. And if
they are saying something, if they are extending support to farmers in a
peaceful manner, I don’t think there is any threat, but they should be within
the limit. This is what democracy is all about. Students should not go on
rampage or damaging the property of a university or outside. We have a protest
site on the campus and students are free to register their protests in a
peaceful manner. We don’t discourage things like that.
What astonishes me is the sense of belonging that the
students have for the University. So, when they think the University may come
in harm’s way or anything they do that would be against the interest of AMU, they
listen to us.
Should Universities retain Hindu or Muslim in their names?
There is globalisation and there is g-localisation which
means local aspirations. We need a bit of both. Our university’s doors are open
to people of every religion, caste and creed. More than 30% of our students
belong to the majority community. The name only reflects some cultural
aspirations and traditions which are to be preserved. Our culture is the only
survival kit in this world and we derive solace from it.
AMU is a central university. It gets funds from the Centre.
Then why should we have reservations for a particular community?
I want to clarify that there is no reservation for Muslims
in AMU. It is a misnomer. We have 50% seats reserved for internal students and
any student who has finished Class XII from here will get this benefit
irrespective of him or her being a Muslim, Hindu, Christian or any other
religion. There is not even one percent reservation for Muslims in AMU.
Nobody comes to AMU to study a simple BA course. Most come
to study courses in Urdu, Islamic studies, theology and Arabic which is why you
will find a lot of Muslim students in AMU. But in courses like mass
communication, LLB, and other prestigious courses like engineering and computer
science, you will find an equal number of students from other communities.
By inviting PM Modi for the centenary function, what are you
hoping to achieve?
I think our VC has taken the initiative to make a new
beginning. We have sent a Rs 140 crore proposal to the Union education ministry
to set up a professional college for women. We hope we can come together and
achieve success. This will mark the beginning of a new era of hope and we look
forward to listening to our PM. We just want to have a good rapport with the
government of the day and the majority community. We will progress when we come
together. Pluralism is our basic value. There will be a lot of hiccups like
local BJP leaders but when the PM talks about our academic tradition, it will
certainly have a positive effect.
Aligarh and AMU is also the intellectual capital of Muslims
in the world. When PM Modi attends the function and delivers his message of
‘sabka saath sabka vikas’ at AMU, it will provide the best opportunity to be
used by us and the government as well.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/sanjeev-singh-blog/amu-is-the-intellectual-capital-of-muslims-in-the-world-when-pm-talks-itll-have-a-positive-effect/
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When PM Modi Speaks At AMU Today, He Could Underline His
Resolve To Preserve, Defend University’s Character
By Faizan Mustafa
December 22, 2020
“From the seed we sow today there may spring up a mighty
tree, whose branches, like those of the banyan of the soil, shall in their turn
strike firm roots into the earth and themselves send forth new and vigorous
saplings; that this college may expand into a university, whose sons shall go
forth throughout the length and breadth of the land to preach the gospel of
free inquiry, of large-hearted toleration and of pure morality,” said Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan at the time when Viceroy Lord Lytton laid the foundation of the MAO
(Mohammadan Agro-Oriental) college on January 8, 1877. The prophetic words of
the founder have come true as Aligarh Muslim University is today an
internationally-acclaimed university and a unique symbol of India’s composite
culture. At a function to unveil the university’s centenary celebrations today,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in attendance.
Historian Hamilton Gibb had called the institution the
“first modernist organisation of Islam”. The university has rightly been
recognised as an “institution of national importance” by the Constitution. It
has produced heads of state of several countries, including India. Two its
alumni, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Zakir Hussain, were conferred the Bharat
Ratna.
The cornerstone of Sir Syed’s philosophy was the development
of a scientific spirit, which he considered to be a sine qua non for
intellectual advancement and social progress. He faced stiff opposition from
fundamentalist Muslims and more than 50 fatwas were issued against him for his
progressive views on Islam and emphasis on western education. Sir Syed was a
great nationalist. On Hindu-Muslim relations, he had said in 1883 that by
living together for centuries in India, Muslims have acquired hundreds of
customs from the Hindus just as Hindus learned hundreds of things from the
Muslims. In Gurdaspur in 1884, he remarked: “O Hindus and Muslims! Do you
belong to a country other than India? Do you not live on this soil and are not
buried under it or cremated on its ghats? If you live and die on this land,
then, bear in mind, that… all the Hindus, Muslims and Christians who live in
this country are one nation.”
The Scientific Society founded by Sir Syed in 1863 was
national in character. Apart from the British members, it comprised 82 Hindu
and 107 Muslim members. Even the 22-member managing committee of MAO College
included six Hindus. The first graduate of the university was Ishwari Prasad
and the first MA was Amba Prasad. Strangely, famous colleges of England did not
admit non-Christian students even as late as the beginning of the 20th century.
True, Section 2 of the MAO College Laws, 1877 clearly
provided that “the college is primarily for the Muslims and so far as
consistent with above objectives for others”. But this is exactly what the
Supreme Court of India held in Kerala Education Bill (1957), when it observed
that minority institutions are primarily for the minority that has established
them. The TMA Pai judgment (2003) reiterated this view while dealing with the
relationship of Article 30(1) with Article 29(2). AMU does not have
religion-based reservation but most people do not differentiate between
reservation in state institutions and minority institutions. While the former
cannot have religion based reservation due to Article 15(1), the latter are
entitled to it under Article 30(1) if it is a religious minority institution.
As minorities are an integral part of India, AMU as the greatest citadel of
minority education is simultaneously an institution of national importance in
respect of which only Parliament can legislate. Many erroneously believe that a
government-aided institution cannot be a minority institution. Article 30(2)
explicitly negates this view. The Court has consistently held that government
“aid” cannot come with such conditions that will “annihilate or destroy
minority character” of a minority institution.
No one has ever doubted the minority character of MAO
College. The Supreme Court in 1967 and Allahabad High Court in 2005 admitted
the so-called “deep green” character of the MAO College. This college was
converted into a university in 1920. Section 5 of the AMU Act even today says
AMU shall inherit not only all debts, liabilities, etc. of the MAO College but
also its rights. Even Justice Chagla, while introducing the 1965 amendment, had
told Parliament that the government has no intention of changing the character
of the university. Yet, departing from its otherwise liberal approach, the
Supreme Court in 1967 opined that it is not clear from the text of the 1920 Act
that the university was established by Muslims. H M Seervai termed the judgment
as “productive of great public mischief”. Parliament responded to court’s
anxieties through an amendment in 1981 to clarify and explicitly state the
historical fact that Aligarh Muslim University is “an institution of their
choice established by Muslims of India” and that it “in fact originated as MAO
College” and was merely “incorporated” and not really “established” in 1920. In
2005, Allahabad High Court struck down this amendment as a “brazen overruling”.
The SC quickly stayed this judgment and in 2019 agreed to reconsider its own
1967 judgment.
AMU always received full support from successive
governments. Since PM Modi has given the slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Saath and
Sabka Vishwas, he may not only give a big financial package to the university
but also assure the over-anxious AMU fraternity about his resolve to preserve,
protect and defend the historic and constitutional character of this great
institution so that AMU realises the vision of its founder by producing
enlightened and liberal citizens. Investment in the secular and modern
education of minorities helps the nation in many ways.
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Faizan Mustafa is president of Consortium of National Law
Universities and vice-chancellor of NALSAR, Hyderabad. Views are personal
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/narendra-modi-aligarh-muslim-university-centenary-7114105/
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Decoding Pakistan’s New Verbal Assaults
By Harsha Kakar
December 22, 2020
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister,
addressing a press conference in Abu Dhabi, stated: “An important development
has cropped up. I have learned through our intelligence forces that India is
planning a surgical strike against Pakistan. This is a serious development and
I also have knowledge that they tried to seek approval from important players
who they consider to be their partners.” He again attempted to bring up the
globally rejected dossier by stating that Pakistan had revealed ‘India (was)
sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan’ through a dossier that it had shared with the
international community. These comments were later repeated by Imran Khan.
The question which remains unanswered is why Abu Dhabi was
chosen for the announcement. Was it because Qureshi’s visit to UAE failed as it
refused to lift the ban on Pakistan workers as also that it was unwilling to
support Pakistan financially? UAE officials stated two days later that the ban
was temporary but did not mention when it would be lifted.
Around the same time, in an interview to ‘The Christian
Science Monitor’, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Majeed Khan, stated
Islamabad wants the US to help stop Indian interference in Pakistan’s internal
affairs. He added, “we do not want our relationship with Washington to be
India-specific,” hinting that the US must recognize efforts of Pakistan in
promoting peace in Afghanistan. He also raised the issue of the “dossier”
raised by Pakistan on Indian interference in its internal matters. He said:
“(India) is trying to destabilise Pakistan’s economic cooperation with China by
fomenting terrorist attacks against Chinese-financed development projects,
including a deadly assault at a luxury hotel in Gwadar.”
In the same interview, James Dobbins, a former US special
representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan projected the US view, stating, “We
may see the US taking a little tougher stance toward India over its human
rights record, but basically we’ll continue to court India as a counterweight
to China,” adding, “and overall, I don’t think we’ll see the Biden
administration taking a very different approach to Pakistan than the Trump
administration did.” This would suggest Pakistan’s attempts to paint India as a
villain are failing.
In another incident last weekend, Pakistan accused India of
targeting a UN Military Observer vehicle. This was denied by India as it had
prior information of the visit and there was no firing in the area. Pakistan
stated that India “specifically targeted a UN vehicle carrying members of the
United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan from across the
Line of Control.” It added, “Such illegal and unlawful acts against all
established international norms, signify malintent of Indian Army to target not
only innocent civilians residing along the LoC but UN Peacekeepers as well.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, Zahid Chaudhri,
stated, “Pakistan urges the international community to advise India against any
irresponsible act and to desist from any action that would jeopardise regional
peace and stability.”
The UN representative in New York stated, “At this stage,
we’re simply aware that a vehicle was hit by an unidentified object, no one was
harmed, we are investigating the incident.” This is not the first time that
Pakistan has accused India of targeting UN Peacekeeping vehicles. It had done
so in 2017 and 2018. In both cases the UN itself dismissed Pakistan’s claims on
grounds that the incident had occurred but there was no proof that it was due
to Indian firing.
These three announcements were near simultaneous and in not
a single case did Pakistan present any concrete evidence to back up its claims,
other than repeating the story of its dossier which anyway contains no proof.
Why has Pakistan suddenly begun spreading propaganda against
India? Internally, the government is facing intense pressure from a combined
opposition and a rising Pashtun movement. Accusations on the army, for
interfering in internal politics and corruption, continue to grow, with former
Premier Nawaz Sharif leading the attack. To add to this are growing cases of
Covid, a failing medical system and an economy in ruins. The only way to offset
the opposition, deflect growing internal pressure and back the army is by
claiming that India is planning a surgical strike. After all, India is the
eternal enemy. To add credence to these claims, the army is supposedly placed
on high alert.
The smooth conduct of District Development Council elections
in J and K, with no calls for boycott nor incidents of terrorist violence, and
active participation by locals, displays a failure of Pakistan’s Kashmir
policy. There has been no support to the country even in the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The officially released OIC statement on Kashmir,
after the foreign ministers’ meeting in November, was in sharp contrast to what
was claimed by Pakistan.
Diplomatic and economic pressure is mounting on Pakistan on
account of its support to terrorist groups. Its known allies have backed away
and are unwilling to support the country. It is being compelled to borrow from
China at much higher rates of interest to repay loans from Middle East nations.
Oil on deferred payment basis has stopped, adding to economic woes.
It is also hoping to enhance pressure on India as Indian
retaliation along the LoC is causing havoc on its defences. Further, Indian
exposure of Pakistan’s involvement in backing terrorism has been increasing.
Pakistan has been attempting to sell its fake dossier in every country, hoping
that someone may join it in support. This could then enable Pakistan to justify
its actions in Kashmir and enable it to get out of the FATF blacklist by
accusing India. Thus far, apart from China and Turkey, not a single nation has
stood by Pakistan.
Pakistan will continue inventing new charges against India,
all without proof, in the desperate hope of offsetting internal mounting
pressure on the establishment. Globally, it will continue crying foul, hoping
that at some stage it receives support as the weaker neighbour of India.
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Harsha Kakar is a retired Major-General of the Indian
Army.
https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/decoding-pakistans-new-verbal-assaults-1502942033.html
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