India revokes Kashmir’s and Jammu’s special status

[urutzizu]

Bad, Bad decision. India seems to be hell bent to try what China has done in Xinjiang. The Abolition of Article 370&35A would allow for people from other parts of (hindu-majority) India to be settled in Kashmir and permanently change its demographics from Muslim to Hindu, something that was previously restricted under J&Kashmirs laws.

If you impose permanent martial law, imprison even the moderate political leaders and take away their autonomy, then that is how you create terrorists.

[urutzizu]

Uh, not really? People from say, Mumbai or anywhere else in India should have every right to settle in J&K. India is still a single country after all.

Just like Americans from California should have the right to settle in Mississippi or Germans from Saxony should have the right to settle in Hamburg for example.

Removing autonomy and cracking down is a bad idea I agree though.

Jammu and Kashmir is not really comparable to those two. The Instrument of Accession ( i.e. the Treaty under which J&K was incorporated into India) forsees the special Automous status that no other state in India has, that allows it to restrict Immigration from other States. The issue is not Labour or economic migration or any of this. No person would immigrate to J&K for these reasons. The only reason for which people, Hindus namely, would immigrate to J&k is for political /demographic reasons, like the settlers in the west bank. The Government would encourage this of course. As the only Muslim State in India, with a distinct national identity, Kashmiris would soon become a minority in their own state/country. This is the objective of the Indian Government.

[urutzizu]

I would actually compare this to Israel vs Palestine ,with now India fully taking the Israel role (which is good)

You mean as in Netanyahu tacitly tolerates Hamas rule in the Gaza strip, because it discredits the palestinians and makes a palestinian state very unlikely? That is a interesting point.


One more thing i would like to add: Kashmir is actually not the only state to impose internal Immigration restrictions: The small christian-majority states in the north-east of India have them too. They have never been controversial and are supported by the central government. Only with Kashmir it is an issue, for reasons that hardly need explaining.

[urutzizu]

Lastly he said it clear that Kashmir is part of India and always has been so it should be a full state .  

I am going to stop you right here: J&K is actually going to lose its statehood. It is going to become split up and there will be two Union Territories, not States, in its place. J&K will actually have less Autonomy than a State, Ladakh no self rule whatsoever, rather than just be be downgraded to a normal Indian state.

[urutzizu]

Imagine if WWIII starts because of f**king India. It'd feel like a bit of a gyp, wouldn't it?

Never played Civilisation?

[urutzizu]

Even more revealing is the silence of the major powers. Charitably, one could assume the absence of commentary from Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow is due to geopolitics (after all, the Western powers are building up India as their key military ally in the region, and the latter two still want some influence in New Delhi). More disturbingly though, the leaders of these countries are giving a silent endorsement because they think it's pretty much OK what India is doing, and if anything are studying the actions of Modi to see if they can repeat his methods domestically.

I found even more disgusting the attitude of the major Muslim nations. Complete silence, the UAE even endorsed the crackdown. Those who shamelessly portray themselves at any occasion as the protectors of Muslims in Palestine, show their True colors when it comes to Muslims in Xinjiang or Kashmir. They happily invest and support concentration camps, brainwashing or indefinite detention without trial of Muslims there, treatment to which the Israeli Occupation policies pale in comparison.