The Modi Government’s Cold Indifference to Kashmiris

The growing tension of war and hostility between Iran and Israel, with a barrage of missiles into each other has again brought home to the people the bare reality of New Delhi discriminatory policy with regard to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The Modi Government’s Cold Indifference to Kashmiris  It is against this developed international crisis that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in the middle with dozens of Kashmiri students who awaited taheir classes and now instead of going to school fear they might be killed by the warring nations and desperation to make it back home. Indian establishment decided to turn a blind eye as other countries rushed to rescue their citizens, sending out urgent messaging to their concerned citizens about evacuation efforts in an event of any quake. New Delhi has not shown such keenness or compassion towards the Kashmiri students who are now caught in the middle of the rope. Their scared relatives living in Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag, and other regions of IIOJK are left in the state of intolerable tension, as they cannot obtain any kind of assurance or even recognition on the part of the same government that is supposed to defend their interests.
This heart wrenching lapse by the Modi Government’s is more than merely a heartless act of negligence by government bureaucracy, this was also a demonstration of discriminatory and alien manner in which the Indian state treats the Kashmiri people. In reducing the number of troops that need to deploy to hundreds of thousands of armed troops to stifle the voices of the Kashmiris, the government seems fast and efficient. To New Delhi, Kashmiris are not ordinary citizens with rights, dignity, and safety, they are a restless population to be pacified, shut up, and disposed. Worse still is the utter failure on the part of Indian Embassy in Tehran that also manifests a pathetic state of lack of coordination, communication and concern over this group of stranded students. It is common knowledge that Embassies are supposed to be places of safety and refuge to a country in a strange territory, during the times of emergency. But the Kashmiri students have also complained to have face silence, evasiveness, and indifference of the Indian diplomatic staff. However, since they belong to IIOJK, their concerns are not taken seriously, their security status is not considered and their lives do not matter as much. This outrageous gap shows how the anti-Kashmiri agenda of Modi government is not limited to the boundaries of Kashmir only; it is accompanying Kashmiris wherever they live and refutes them the equal treatment and human concern in even distant corners of the earth.
The ongoing protests in Baramulla in which desperate families are seeking some action and explanations by the central government have been received with cold reactions by New Delhi. Such families scream in distress, they fret about the destination of their children stuck in a war-torn region and the Modi government does not react, does not calm, is not found making even a vein promise of assistance. This cold disregard makes an inhumane statement to all Kashmiri families; your government is blind to you; you are not worth being heard; you are not worth one second of their administration attention. The mental trauma which this state negligence would have abused on these families would be immense; however more detrimental is the fact that many Kashmiris have long held that the BJP government did not perceive them as citizens in any shape or form, but as second-class subjects, an erroneous people to be put down at home and thrown out to sea. Since August 2019, it has been the status quo in Kashmir mass arrests, internet shutdowns, censorship of the media and rampant surveillance due to a unilateral and unconstitutional move of aggression on the special status of the region with the removal of Article 370. Silencing of dissent, torture, politically repression, and harassment of human rights activists this has been the BJP Kashmir policy by all means.
The reactions of India on other crises that had afflicted its people abroad have been quite different though. When it happened to Indian nationals being in a conflict zone in Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc., the government did it at the speed of light and in a celebrating manner by documenting press releases and carrying out an evacuation operation followed by flag hoisting. Yet all this concern and alertness are not applicable to the Kashmiri students in Iran. Their protestations are not heard; the outcry of their relatives is unanswered; their lives are apparently erased by the state machine which is to protect them. The hypocritical duplicity can show us what the Modi government is really about, control not care.
The consequences of this cold-hearted carelessness extend much beyond concerns of instant safety of the stranded students. They strengthen the well-established belief in Kashmir about the ill-will of the Indian state which is not only indifferent to their rights, aspirations, and existence but tries to take necessary actions against it. The anguish of the 13 stranded students in Iran is therefore symbolic of a greater injustice, systematic in nature where the government does not and will not acknowledge or accept the humanity of Kashmiris; whether back home or overseas.
The world community especially organizations or groups dealing with human rights and watchdogs cannot continue to stand on the sidelines of such naked bias. The failure to take care of its Kashmiri students in India should be condemned as the insult to the fundamental principles of equal citizenship and human rights. World should punish New Delhi on this absolute failure and insist on it to carry its duties towards all its citizens including those in IIOJK.
The Kashmir policy of the Modi government is ugly with discriminating and oppressive colors due to the inability of its government to evacuate Kashmiri students who are trapped in the war zone of Iran. It is not only carelessness or negligence, it is a policy of exclusion, which is part of a larger policy of dehumanization and marginalization of Kashmiris. The Indian embassy remains mum and quiet, the indifference of New Delhi, the unattended screams of Baramulla families all tells a story of a regime, which does not acknowledge Kashmiris as people to be guarded, but rather as a burden and a baggage to be contained and rejected. This disgraceful incident acts as a grim reminder to the world about all the injustices committed against the people Kashmir both in the Valley and outside.