Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Engel & Menendez Statement on Status of Jammu and Kashmir
In response to the steps India has taken to revise the status of Jammu and Kashmir, Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement:
“As the world’s largest democracy, India has an opportunity to demonstrate for all its citizens the importance of protecting and promoting equal rights, including freedom of assembly, access to information, and equal protections under the law. Transparency and political participation are the cornerstones of representative democracies, and we hope the Indian government will abide by these principles in Jammu and Kashmir. And at the same time Pakistan must refrain from any retaliatory aggression—including support for infiltrations across the Line of Control—and take demonstrable action against the terrorist infrastructure on Pakistan’s soil.”
India can live with Pakistan expelling its envoy. The challenge is in Kashmir
Pakistan is seeking to escalate tensions over Kashmir by expelling India’s envoy. It’s a drastic step but India can live with it for now. It’s not unprecedented and ties are anyway not at their best. The Modi government should instead focus on tackling the internal challenges in post-Article 370 Kashmir.
By scrapping Article 370, Modi is going for a failed European model of nation building
YOGENDRA YADAV
Modi govt’s Kashmir move is a fundamental reorientation of the way India handles diversities. The entire country is now Union’s territory.
Eight years ago, I co-authored a book, Crafting State-Nations, with two great scholars of comparative politics, professors Alfred Stepan and Juan Linz. The book argued that the world needed to learn from the Indian model of democratic engagement with deep diversities. The new Kashmir doctrine announced by the Narendra Modi government Monday effectively puts paid to that model.
The ‘New India’ is saying goodbye to its own unique model of nation-building in favour of an outdated and disastrous European model.
The old nation-state model
Let me summarise the argument. All over the world, we face a difficult question: how can democracies accommodate deep socio-cultural diversity within one state? This issue is faced not just by countries like India that have inherited deep religious, linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversities. The small and hitherto homogenous countries in Europe and North America also face this challenge today, thanks to large-scale immigration.
We have inherited an old wisdom on how to handle diversities. First evolved in Europe, this wisdom tells us every state must contain within itself one and not more than one culturally homogenous nation, that every state should be a nation, and that every nation should be a state. This understanding informed the rise of modern nation-states in Europe. So, the ‘nation-state’ model is a political-institutional approach that tries to make the political boundaries of the state and the presumed cultural boundaries of the nation match. How do you do that? Nation-states solved this problem of diversity by privileging one sociocultural identity with the help of soft assimilation, coercion or violence. This is what happened in Italy, in France and most infamously in Germany. This is why nationalism gets such a bad name in Europe.
But this is not the only model. There are many successful democratic states in the world today that do not conform to this nation-state model. The list would include Canada, Spain and Belgium, though India is a prime example of this new model of nation-building.
A new state-nation model
This new model involves a political-institutional approach that respects and protects multiple socio-cultural identities. Instead of stream-rolling difference, this approach recognises the legitimate public and even political expression of regional, linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversities. This model focuses on mechanisms to accommodate competing or conflicting claims of different groups, while fostering a ‘we-feeling’ for the country as a whole. In our book, we called this new model ‘state-nation’.
India was a classic state-nation model. Instead of trying to copy European nations, our freedom struggle recognised and celebrated our diversities. Our nationalist leaders insisted that India did not need one language or one culture to be a nation. This gave birth to the cliché of “unity in diversity”.
The Indian Constitution duly reflected this understanding of nationhood. Multiplicity of religious practices was recognised and protected by incorporating minority rights in the chapter on Fundamental Rights.
Linguistic diversity was acknowledged by adopting several official languages rather than one national language. Regional and cultural diversity was secured by adopting ‘asymmetrical’ federalism, i.e., a federal arrangement that recognises special situation of different states and makes unique arrangements to accommodate their specific needs.
One of these provisions of a very special arrangement for Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 is well known. But we forget that Article 371 makes similar extra-ordinary arrangements for Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim, besides special provision for disadvantaged communities or regions in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Allowing for different kinds of differences lay at the heart of the state-nation called India.
A Union’s territory
All this changed Monday. Or rather, the Kashmir doctrine unveiled Monday put an official seal on what was coming in bits and pieces for long. The Modi government has made no secret of its desire for simultaneous elections to Parliament and state assemblies under ‘One Nation One Election’.
We have had a proposal to extend the National Register of Citizens, a special solution to a peculiar problem in Assam, to the rest of the country. This might be called ‘One Nation, One Citizenship’. Reforms in agricultural markets are called ‘One Nation, One Market’. So, it is not a coincidence that the new Kashmir policy is framed as ‘One Nation, One Constitution’. Let there be no confusion about it: what we have witnessed Monday is not just a radical shift in the Kashmir policy, we are witnessing a fundamental reorientation of the way we handle diversities. The entire country is now the Union’s territory.
This is the heart of what is wrong with what the Modi government seeks to do in Kashmir. The problem is not just that it violates the letter of the Constitution. As many lawyers have pointed out, Article 370(3) clearly mandates that the President can modify Article 370 only on recommendation by the constituent assembly of J&K (which ceased to exist in 1956).
Article 3 says that the boundaries of a state can be changed only after referring the matter to the state assembly. In this instance, the Central government has acted on its own recommendation. In doing so, it has also violated the basic spirit of the Constitution. The underlying idea is that you do not determine the fate of the people without their representatives getting a chance to discuss it.
Unity in singularity
In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, this was a sacred covenant: the special status of the state will not be changed without the express consent of their elected representatives. Doing so at a moment when the state assembly stands dissolved, when the political leaders are in detention and when the entire state is under information blackout, is a betrayal of Constitutionalism.
Above all, it amounts to abandoning the state-nation model of living with deep diversities.
Religious diversity is a problem; minorities need to be put in their place. Any assertion of regional diversity is potentially secessionist; it needs to be crushed. Ideological dissent is a no-no; it needs to be shut up. We have turned our back to at least one century of audacity to think that India need not replicate European templates.
Just when India has acquired the economic clout to command a seat at the global centre stage, its leaders meekly surrender to a failed European model of how to build a nation. The good old ‘Unity in Diversity’ is replaced by ‘Unity in Singularity’. The ‘new India’ looks like a faded copy of a very old Europe. The trouble, of course, is that by the time we have managed to copy the sahebs, they have moved on. And that, as Ashis Nandy would remind you, is the ultimate tragedy of the colonised mind.
کشمیر کیلئے اپنا خون دیں گے، بلاول بھٹو
کشمیر میں کلسٹر بموں سے حملہ، ہزاروں فوجیوں کی تعیناتی، انٹرنیٹ اور مواصلاحات کے نظام کو معطل کرنا بھارت کے نظریہ سیکولر کے منافی ہے،’گجرات کا قصائی‘ اعلیٰ عہدے پر فائر ہوا اور پاکستان نے نریندر مودی کی انتہا پسندانہ سوچ کو سمجھنے میں کوتاہی کی، مودی بھارت کا قصائی تو تھا ہی آج کشمیر کا قصائی بن گیا، ہمارے جزوی اختلافات ایک طرف لیکن مسئلہ کشمیر پر پوری دنیا کے مسلمان ایک ہیں۔ پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو نے پارلیمنٹ کے مشترکہ اجلاس سے خطاب کرتے ہوئے کہاکہ پاکستان کو مسئلہ کشمیر موثر انداز میں اقوام متحدہ اٹھانا چاہیے، عالمی برادری کو مقبوضہ کشمیر میں بھارتی جارحیت اور ظالم و ستم کے خلاف اپنا کردار ادا کرے،انتہائی اہم مسئلے کے باوجود شاہد خاقان عباسی اور رانا ثناء اللہ سمیت دیگر اراکین قومی اسمبلی موجود نہیں، حیران کن بات ہے مودی کی کامیابی کیلئے ہمارے وزیراعظم دعاگو تھے، وزیرخارجہ ملک میں نہیں شیریں مزاری کو وزیر خارجہ بنادیں۔
Chairman Bilawal asks PM Imran to show leadership; PPP is standing with Kashmir Cause
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to rise to the occasion and provide leadership for the Kashmir cause instead of only one tweet and speech in the National Assembly.
Chairman Bilawal speaking in the National Assembly said that it is unfortunate that Speaker of the House was unable to complete the House as former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah and two representatives from South and North Waziristan are absent even today. Similarly, the House was incomplete on the occasion when the budget was presented in the Parliament.
Addressing the Kashmir issues he said that India has been using cluster bombs on innocent Kashmiris, educational institutions are closed, every kind of communication has been cut off, extra Indian troops have been sent to Kashmir and all the known political leaders have been arrested. The revoking of article 370 of the Indian constitution is an attack on the ideology of India, UN and international laws, democracy and the right of self determination of Kashmiri people. This opens the door to make Kashmiris a minority in their own land. This will not be accepted by the Kashmiri people, we the Pakistanis and the people of India should also follow suit in rejecting this treacherous act.
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is renowned for fighting for the Kashmir cause as he had said that we share history, geography, religion, blood and culture with the Kashmiri people. We will not remain silent at the time when Kashmiri brothers and sisters are calling us for help. It is unfortunate that PM Imran Khan did not give any policy statement in the House and the foreign minister is not even in the country.
Chairman PPP said that Prime Minister Modi is an extremist ruler who is the butcher of Gujrat and now occupies the post of Indian Prime Minister. He asked that if Pakistan had ever elected an extremist Prime Minister like Modi then would have India welcomed it? India has become an occupying force in Kashmir. Modi’s mandate is a hate mandate, he has been inflicting harm on Kashmiri people for the last five years and it is ironic that our PM Imran Khan was hoping and praying for his re-election. Modi has arrested the entire Kashmir leadership because every Kashmiri considers India’s act as illegal and the former Chief Minister of Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti has said that the day India revoked article 370 is the darkest day of Indian democracy.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked Pakistani government to take drastic diplomatic actions and must engage United Nations and demand for a special session of OIC so that we can demonstrate that every Muslim country is united on Kashmir issue. He said that a commission should be constituted to investigate human rights violations in Kashmir. He also asked international community to take notice of Indian action.
Chairman PPP said Simla Agreement says that no side will take unilateral action. PPP hopes that Pakistani PM will put forward the case of Kashmir at all international forums but unfortunately, the government is just boasting the photo session of the US visit and is busy in crushing the Opposition. He said that we stand at the crossroads of history. The history will ask us where we were when Kashmiri youth were showered with pellet guns and bombed with cluster bombs.
We have only two options left now, Chairman Bilawal stated. Either to accept aggressive, treacherous and extremist Modi’s hegemony desert our Kashmiri brethren and live a life of humiliation or to rise to the occasion and reject Modi’s ideology. The latter is the honorable option, he said. Pakistan must act wisely as India has lost its credibility and legitimacy as a democratic state by revoking article 370. We have to speak as one voice, Pakistani voice. We must shun all our differences and unite for our Kashmiri brethren. We had a PM who had said that we will fight for ten thousand years for Kashmir cause, he concluded.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/chairman-bilawal-asks-pm-imran-to-show-leadership-ppp-is-standing-with-kashmir-cause/
Chairman Bilawal speaking in the National Assembly said that it is unfortunate that Speaker of the House was unable to complete the House as former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah and two representatives from South and North Waziristan are absent even today. Similarly, the House was incomplete on the occasion when the budget was presented in the Parliament.
Addressing the Kashmir issues he said that India has been using cluster bombs on innocent Kashmiris, educational institutions are closed, every kind of communication has been cut off, extra Indian troops have been sent to Kashmir and all the known political leaders have been arrested. The revoking of article 370 of the Indian constitution is an attack on the ideology of India, UN and international laws, democracy and the right of self determination of Kashmiri people. This opens the door to make Kashmiris a minority in their own land. This will not be accepted by the Kashmiri people, we the Pakistanis and the people of India should also follow suit in rejecting this treacherous act.
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is renowned for fighting for the Kashmir cause as he had said that we share history, geography, religion, blood and culture with the Kashmiri people. We will not remain silent at the time when Kashmiri brothers and sisters are calling us for help. It is unfortunate that PM Imran Khan did not give any policy statement in the House and the foreign minister is not even in the country.
Chairman PPP said that Prime Minister Modi is an extremist ruler who is the butcher of Gujrat and now occupies the post of Indian Prime Minister. He asked that if Pakistan had ever elected an extremist Prime Minister like Modi then would have India welcomed it? India has become an occupying force in Kashmir. Modi’s mandate is a hate mandate, he has been inflicting harm on Kashmiri people for the last five years and it is ironic that our PM Imran Khan was hoping and praying for his re-election. Modi has arrested the entire Kashmir leadership because every Kashmiri considers India’s act as illegal and the former Chief Minister of Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti has said that the day India revoked article 370 is the darkest day of Indian democracy.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked Pakistani government to take drastic diplomatic actions and must engage United Nations and demand for a special session of OIC so that we can demonstrate that every Muslim country is united on Kashmir issue. He said that a commission should be constituted to investigate human rights violations in Kashmir. He also asked international community to take notice of Indian action.
Chairman PPP said Simla Agreement says that no side will take unilateral action. PPP hopes that Pakistani PM will put forward the case of Kashmir at all international forums but unfortunately, the government is just boasting the photo session of the US visit and is busy in crushing the Opposition. He said that we stand at the crossroads of history. The history will ask us where we were when Kashmiri youth were showered with pellet guns and bombed with cluster bombs.
We have only two options left now, Chairman Bilawal stated. Either to accept aggressive, treacherous and extremist Modi’s hegemony desert our Kashmiri brethren and live a life of humiliation or to rise to the occasion and reject Modi’s ideology. The latter is the honorable option, he said. Pakistan must act wisely as India has lost its credibility and legitimacy as a democratic state by revoking article 370. We have to speak as one voice, Pakistani voice. We must shun all our differences and unite for our Kashmiri brethren. We had a PM who had said that we will fight for ten thousand years for Kashmir cause, he concluded.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/chairman-bilawal-asks-pm-imran-to-show-leadership-ppp-is-standing-with-kashmir-cause/
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