In his monthly address, India’s prime minister Modi addressed his countrymen to recount his government’s achievements on the internal and external front. This month’s address coincided with Modi’s seventh tumultuous year in office. In each address the chest-thumping Modi used to display his brand image “Modi hai to mumkin hai” (with Modi everything is possible), an allusion to “surgical strikes” against Pakistan and tit for tat to Chinese “intruders”.
Covid19 jolt
The pandemic took a toll of about 4000 people a day. However, Modi made no mention of its severity. He avoided mentioning shortage of oxygen cylinders and concentrators, medicines and hospital beds. He did not say that even fire-extinguishers were repainted and sold as oxygen cylinders.
However, he surprisingly displayed an altered tone in this month’s address. Instead of monopolizing credit for all achievements, mostly self-conceited, he recited his mantra “ sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”. He stressed the message that the achievements of the past seven years had been those of the nation”.
The opposition parties however claimed that the Modi government had inflicted ”unmeasureable pain” on the people in terms of joblessness, spiraling POL prices, the farmers’ protest and mismanagement of the COVID19. When healthcare infrastructure crumbled, people had to admit their loved ones in cow-shed clinics in the hope that Ayurvedic elixir of cow dung and urine would work miracles. About four thousand patients died every day. The bereaved families had to dump their dead bodies in the River Ganges as they could not afford wood to cremate dead bodies.
It is true that Modi’s euphoria that he had got rid of the pandemic did enable the pandemic to spread by leaps and bounds. On January 28, 2021, at the World economic forum, he announced victory against the pandemic_” My country has saved humanity from a big disaster by containing Corona effectively’. He rejoiced at election rallies in various states. He did not frown upon kumbh mela along the River Ganges.
Kashmir jolt
During his stay in Pakistan, the president of the United Nations’ general Assembly remarked thatPakistan should raise the Kashmir issue more forcefully and that all parties should refrain from steps that affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir. India furiously reacted to the incumbent UNGA‘s president’s remarks. India called his remarks “misleading”, “prejudiced”, and “great disservice to the office he occupies’ .In an editorial comment, the dailyDawn dated May 29, 2021 , pointed out “Mr. Bozkir was making an obvious reference to the events of August 2019, when India moved to make constitutional changes paving the way for the illegal annexation of India-held Kashmir” and allowing “ 430,000 new domicile certificates” to outsiders.
How could India change the disputed status of the Jammu and Kashmir State when it has no legally tenable proof that the disputed state acceded to India? India never presented the mythical Instrument of accession to Pakistan or before the United Nations.
Isn’t it funny that, in the summer of 1995, the Indian authorities reported the original “instrument” as “lost or stolen”? Perry Anderson says that Kashmir became part of India in 1947 ‘with a forged declaration of accession’, and that the document then disappeared for ‘over half a century’. Perry says, `A facsimile of the crucial page bearing his signature was published more than forty years ago, and the entire document was posted on the website of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs. However, when I sought permission to consult the original, I was told – it would be nice to think that the play on words was intentional – that the Indian government had “not acceded” to my request’.
Andrew Whitehead, London NW5, says, `There is certainly something fishy about the circumstances of the accession. The evidence is compelling that the maharajah signed on 27 October, but was told to record the date as 26 October. The Instrument of Accession, according to Wolpert, was only signed by Maharaja Sir Hari Singh [if signed at all] after Indian troops had assumed control of the Jammu and Kashmir State’s summer capital, Srinagar.
The accession to India by the so-called “constituent assembly’ also is a farce. Aware of India’s intention to get the ‘Instrument of Accession’ rubber-stamped by the puppet assembly, the Security Council passed two resolutions to forestall the “foreseeable accession” by the puppet assembly. These resolutions are Security Council’s Resolution No 9 of March 30, 1951 and corroborative Resolution No 122 of March 24, 1957. They outlaw accession or any other action to change the status of the Jammu and Kashmir State.
Till about 1953, India continued to reiterate its obeisance to United Resolutions. Nehru continued to chant India’s commitment to plebiscite, even after obtaining the doubtful “instrument of accession” from the maharajah, and getting it “authenticated” by the so-called “constituent assembly” of the occupied Kashmir.
By flouting all resolutions on Kashmir, India has qualified as a rogue state to be subjected to sanctions.
Democracy-downgrade jolt
Offended at being downgraded as “partly free’ by the Freedom house and the V-Dem, India has announced to publish its own version of Democracy Index. Several Indian states have resorted to violent struggle to get self-determination. India is holding them only through a slew of draconian laws which grant blanket immunity to its military and security forces.
India is successor to British colonists. It knows that soon or late it will have to grant the right to self determination to unhappy people. To hoodwink the international community, it wants to portray the image of “free India”.
When India became independent, it was in the throes of several separatist movements like Dravidian South, khalistan, besides insurgencies in the volatile north-eastern region. Then there were princely states that India devoured.
The Englishman held Indian states together at gunpoint. India, successor to the British colonists, acted upon the same strategy to prevent the volatile states from secession.
Now the concept of self-determination is not confined to getting rid of a colonizing power. It also applies to “breaking away from the old regime to form a new one”.
The Freedom in the World index ranks democracies on a scale. This index outlaws persecution of a people, or a minority by its own government. A disenchanted or persecuted community becomes entitled to self-determination.
Amitai Etzioni in Foreign Policy; Thinking Outside the Box (Chapter 9) has discussed the relation between democracy and self-determination. He says, `The term self-determination is also used to refer to the normative principle that is evoked to justify breaking away from the old regime to form a new one’ (p.136, ibid.) `After all, if people break away from a democratically governed society and then become oppressed by people of their “own kind”, no true self-determination is achieved’ (p. 137, ibid).
India has shrugged off Freedom House ranking and announced to produce an index of its own. Etzioni’s analysis of self-determination movements in several cases explains why India is worried at being labeled “partly free”.
At the time of Partition, it was predicted that India and Pakistan would break up into ‘congeries of states’. The basis of this prediction was inability of the new ‘dominions’ to deal with myriad self-determination movements. India was able to muzzle the movements. But, Pakistan could not. And, East Pakistan seceded into Bangladesh through India’s support to insurgents.
Concluding remarks
India is a union held together by use of force. The persecution of minorities led to India’s downgrading on democracy ranking. There is strong evidence that Indian government and Hindu extremists want to convert India into a habitat for only Hindus.
