With comments on Balochistan, PM signals no more unnecessary restraint on Kashmir: Experts

[Rahul Singh]

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi by referring to Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Balochistan+ in his Independence Day speech has sought to rid India of its almost ingrained diffidence in dealing with the‎ Kashmir issue. While it may or may not signify a fundamental shift in India's Pakistan policy, his decision to raise the stakes on Kashmir by highlighting Pakistan's own failings in G-B and Balochistan is going down well with India's strategic community.

PM Modi's comments about goodwill for India‎ in Balochistan+ and G-B, which were not backed by any substantive outreach to Kashmir though, followed a slew of provocative remarks from Pakistan, not least the one by its high commissioner Abdul Basit dedicating Pakistan's Independence Day to freedom of Kashmiris. Of particular significance is PM's reference to Balochistan+ as India is now effectively speaking Pakistan's language in suggesting at least moral and political support forBaloch separatists+ .

‎While former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said PM Modi deserved applause for responding directly to unrestrained comments on the Kashmir crisis by his counterpart Nawaz Sharif himself, India's former envoy to Pakistan G Parthasarathy described Modi's remarks as a long overdue and more realistic approach to Pakistan.

"India has been more restrained than necessary so far despite Pakistan constantly carrying out a propaganda on Kashmir, saying it is the legacy of Partition. If that's the case, Balochistan also is a legacy of Partition+ ," said Parthasarathy, recalling how Jinnah had recognised‎ Balochistan's independent status before Pakistan obtained its accession.

In the immediate run though, what Modi's Balochistan and G-B offensive+ means for his famous Lahore ‎initiative, which saw him dropping by in Sharif's home town ostensibly for the marriage of Sharif's daughter last year, will be of immense interest. The government has until now highlighted Modi's personal bond with Sharif and sought to make a distinction between the civilian government and the Pakistan army in dealing with issues related to crossborder terrorism. Even though Saarc is not just about India and Pakistan, many saw the decision to send Union home minister to Islamabad recently for a conference of the South Asian body as an attempt to keep Modi's Lahore outreach alive.

In his speech though, while PM Modi referred‎ to his decision to invite Sharif for his swearing-in in 2014, he made no mention of his Lahore visit. "PM is implicitly admitting that his efforts have not succeeded and that a tougher public line is required," said Sibal.
While the decision to send Rajnath Singh to Pakistan was also seen as an attempt by the government to keep a door open for Modi's own possible visit to‎ Islamabad in November for the Saarc summit. Sibal, however, said Modi will have to carefully weigh his options.
"PM will be faced with a very difficult choice unless there is a significant change of attitude ‎in Pakistan, which I suspect won't happen? Can he bury his Saarc initiative? Saarc may not be about India and Pakistan alone, but if he goes the visit will come under excessive focus and there'll be hopes of a breakthrough," he said.

The reference to G-B though in the I-Day speech, as Sibal pointed out, is also important‎ in the context of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). With China refusing to halt its activities in the region, despite Modi himself having expressed concerns before Chinese leaders on several occasions, the government believes PM has also indicated to Beijing how strongly India feels about China's infrastructure projects, both civil and military, coming up in a region India considers its integral part.
Pakistan has in the recent past worked to impart G-B a semblance of self-governance and held elections there in 2015. Indian government, however, described the elections as an attempt to "camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation" of the regions which are an integral part of India.

 

[Rahul Singh]

‘Thanks, PM Modi’: Balochi activists thank him for raising the issue

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi's warning to Pakistan seems to have struck home. He had said on Friday that if Pakistan continued to meddle in Kashmir and incite violence and terror, India would be forced to expose the atrocities it continues to commit in its restive Balochistan. The PM's warning was welcomed by a number of prominent activists in Balochistan, who used the opportunity to go all guns blazing on Islamabad.

"We the people of Balochistan, Pakistan and PoK thank you (PM Modi) for your support," news agency ANI reported World Baloch Women's Forum president Naela Qadri Baloch as saying in an interview. "We the people of Balochistan are suffering. We hope that you (PM Modi) raise this issue in the UN session in September," she continued in her message to PM Modi.

Naela Qadri is among the ranks of prominent Balochi activists who repeatedly call on India to intervene in Balochistan, as it did in the case of Bangladesh in 1971.

Another prominent face of the Baloch struggle too added his voice to the chorus. "We welcome PM Modi's statement to support freedom movement of Balochistan. This is the first time ever that an Indian PM has expressed his wish to support the Baloch people. It is a very crucial decision," said Hammal Haider Baloch, representative of the Baloch National Movement.

"The Baloch people share common interests with India. We are secular and believe in democratic principles. Pakistan butchers Sindhi political activists and supports religious groups which are threat to the world," Hammal Haider added.

PM Modi's warning to Pakistan had come after repeated statements from Islamabad praising terrorists operating in Kashmir. Pakistan's politico-military establishment has been trying to make maximum mileage out of the ongoing social unrest in Kashmir, even as speculation rages at home about whether the Pakistan Army is gearing up to overthrow the democratically elected government in yet another coup.

Modi's warning may be read as a direct threat to Islamabad, that New Delhi may be willing to repay Pakistan in kind for its hand in India's internal affairs.

The alleged role on India's Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) in Balochistan is a favourite topic of discussion in prime time pulp news shows in Pakistan, and is often blamed for the troubles Islamabad faces with the region. Naela Qadri Baloch is also among the prominent activists who have categorically dismissed allegations of RAW's involvement in Balochistan.

Balochi activists mostly focus on abductions, brutal killings and rapes of Balochis by Pakistan's security forces. The Balochi ranks also feature some prominent separatist voices, calling for a separate country to be carved out of the Balochistan region in Pakistan's southwest.

 

[sorcerer]

Kashmiris must choose between Indian democracy and Pakistan's self-styled Nizam-e-Mustafa
http://www.firstpost.com/world/kash...tans-self-styled-nizam-e-mustafa-2958762.html

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi Aug 16, 2016 14:5Narendra Modi brought out the baffling issues of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), Gilgit and Balochistan in recognition of the people of these areas who have thanked him for raising their concerns. Modi said that “terrorism is glorified in the other side”— Pakistan. “When children were killed in terror attack on a school in Peshawar (about two years back), there were tears in our Parliament. Indian children were traumatised. This is the example of our humanity. But look at the other side….”, said the Indian Prime Minister. He also asked the international community to judge the behaviour of India and Pakistan in the context of terror atrocities in each other’s country.

In his 93-minute address to the nation, Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister who raised the issues about the areas in the control of Pakistan. Notably, he delivered this address in the backdrop of his recent remarks during an all-party meet on Kashmir in which he sought to expose “the atrocities committed by the neighbouring nation” in Balochistan and the areas of Jammu and Kashmir under it.

• 
  While Modi maintained silence over what he felt about the people of Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian state suffering the worst situation today, he expressed deep gratitude to the people of Balochistan, PoK and Gilgit for their warm regards and high expectations from him, based on the messages he received on Twitter. One can recall that Modi broke his silence on the Kashmir unrest on 9 August in his saying that “Kashmir wants peace and whatever Kashmiris want for betterment of their livelihood, the Centre will provide." But one wonders if this will remain a sheer rhetoric. Merely making a statement against the Pakistani terrorists and saying: "Some people are causing Kashmir a lot of harm” will not suffice. The government will have to dialogue with the people of Kashmir whose majority is still anchored in the Indianness.
  
  However, the straightforward questions that Modi as the Indian Prime Minister has raised from the ramparts of the Red Fort hitting out at Pakistan for “glorifying terrorism” are worth deliberating. He put up these questions in the backdrop of Pakistan declaring Wani a "martyr":
  
  “What kind of terrorism-inspired life is it? What kind of government is which is inspired by terrorism? The world will need to understand the double standards".
  
  The most deplorable evidence of these ‘double standards’ is that Pakistan was formed in the name of Islam and on the basis of “Nizam-e-Mustafa” (the Prophetic system of governance). But its constitution, many of its civil laws and the unabated brazen violation of human rights are antithetical to the true essence of Nizam-e-Mustafa. The shocking state of affairs of religious minorities in the country is an open secret. Not even Muslims are safe. Basic human rights as enshrined in the Prophet’s constitution (Nizam-e-Mustafa) are brazenly violated day in and day out in Pakistan.
  
  
  In fact, the self-styled Nizam-e-Mustafa of Pakistan is far removed from the constitution peacefully and justly enacted by Prophet Muhammad in his state of Medina. His written constitution (called Mithaq-e-Medina or the constitution of Medina) is a historical document of how people of different faiths peacefully coexisted and ushered in one nation (ummah), united and integrated. The actual Nizam-e-Mustafa in Medina — the Prophet’s state — was a written agreement fostering the clauses of universal brotherhood, pluralism and peaceful coexistence of all religious communities. Among the hallmarks of the Prophetic system of governance were unity in multiplicity, social justice, equality, reconciliation, compassion and mercy for all mankind. But in Pakistan, there has been a blatant strike on all these universal and egalitarian clauses of the Prophetic governance since the partition of India, resulting in the creation of this utterly “un-Islamic” state.
  
  On 15 August, 1947, India achieved the independence from the British imperialists and we began to breathe the air of freedom. This independence, of course, brought us decent life and basic human rights which are now accorded to us in India.

• However, the unfortunate aspect was that just a day earlier, on 14 August, a large part of India's west and east were divided into the Western and Eastern Pakistan. Further divided in 1971, the western part remained Pakistan and the eastern part became Bangladesh. Today, a large population of Pakistan and Bangladesh which comprises Muslims is being misguided into a self-styled understanding of Nizam-e-Mustafa. This indoctrination has caught the imagination of the young and gullible Muslims with impressionable minds. Captivated in this ferocious psyche, the religious zealots among the young people in Kashmir indulged in an ethnic cleansing of the valley. Throughout history, scores of the Kashmiri Pandits had to face a turbulent time hearing the separatists’ exclusivist slogan: "Yahan kya chalega, nizam-e-mustafa" (Sharia rule will prevail in Kashmir). This pan-Islamist slogan is still being heard in various parts of the valley, as a consequence of the ongoing radical indoctrination backed by the Pakistani extremist outfits. Even on the eve of the Independence Day, the Srinagar airport witnessed a sloganeering bout chanting aloud with great gusto: "Yahan kya chalega, nizam-e-mustafa ", as a report in The Times of India dated 15 August, 2016 tells us.
• 
  This situation in Kashmir, given the historical background of Pakistan’s creation in the name of Islam, gives rise to the question in many minds: Is the Kashmir issue a political affair or a Pan-Islamic mission?
  
  Fortunately enough for Muslims in India, they have been imbued in the broader notion of democracy and secularism which they don’t view as incompatible with their faith. Unlike the jihadist ideologues in Pakistan, an overwhelming number of Muslim thinkers and ulema, who were among the founders of Indian democracy, evolved a pluralistic Islamic narrative in the independent India. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — the first education minister of India and an avid activist of the freedom struggle — was also a pioneer of the Indian democracy.
  
  Today, India is looked upto as the world's largest democracy. Every citizen and every faith tradition has equal rights. Going by the articles 25 and 26-27, every person has equal right to the profession and practice of his/her religion and conscience. In India, one can practice and propagate one’s religion without any discrimination. But the anti-pluralism Islamist theology which the state of Pakistan is based on, does not allow certain faith traditions to flourish in the country. The ground reality is that the religious minorities like Christians and Hindus and even the Muslim minorities like the Shia Hazaras are targeted on the basis of their faith and creed, and are killed at the hands of the Pakistani religious terrorists roaming freely in the country. In lieu of the implementation of Nizam-e-Mustafa, they are seeking to establish an anti-pluralism theocracy throughout the region.
  
  Given this, the PM Modi’s assertion that India will not yield to terrorism and violence is welcome. In his address on the Independence Day, he gave a timely and mandatory message to youth of Kashmir; to return to the mainstream by shunning the path of violence.
  
  It is now left to the ideological discretion of the Kashmiri people — whether they choose the Indian democracy or the self-styled Nizam-e-Mustafa of Pakistan.
  
  The author is a scholar of Comparative Religion, Classical Arabic and Islamic sciences, cultural analyst and researcher in Media and Communication Studies. Views are personal. Write to him at [email protected]
  
  
  

 

[sorcerer]

Arun Jaitley likely to skip Saarc meeting, Parrikar compares Pak to ‘hell’
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...pak-to-hell/story-9gRg3NMc3D7rjjIFNVYSpM.html

Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley is unlikely to attend a meeting of Saarc ministers in Pakistan next week, reflecting the sharp dip in ties between the two countries.

Jaitley is not expected to join the meeting of finance ministers of the regional grouping in Islamabad during August 25-26, sources close to the minister told Hindustan Times.

A final decision will be made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and this will be followed by a formal announcement, the sources said. Reports suggested economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das would represent India at the Saarc meet.

Soon after news broke that Jaitley would skip the meet in Islamabad, defence minister Manohar Parrikar was quoted as saying that “going to Pakistan is the same as going to hell”.

Addressing a party meet in Rewari, Parrikar said Indian troops had “sent back” five terrorists on Monday. He added: “Pakistan mein jaana aur nark mein jaana eik hi hai.” He also said Pakistan was facing the consequences of its policy of encouraging terrorism.

Earlier this month, home minister Rajnath Singh’s experiences while attending a meeting of Saarc interior ministers in Islamabad on August 4 added to bilateral tensions.

Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan traded barbs over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir while addressing the meet. The two ministers barely shook hands and stayed away from a lunch hosted for the Saarc ministers. While addressing the Saarc meet, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif angered India by referring to “the freedom movement” in Jammu and Kashmir.

The past few days have witnessed a marked escalation in tensions between the two neighbours after Modi said Pakistan would have to answer for alleged rights abuses in Balochisan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Modi also became the first Indian premier to raise Balochistan in an Independence Day speech on Monday.

Pakistan’s foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz responded by saying Modi was trying to divert the world’s attention from the situation in Kashmir. He also said Modi’s remarks proved Pakistan’s allegation that India was “fomenting terrorism in Balochistan”.

The bilateral tensions have coincided with the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir that erupted after security forces killed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whom Pakistan has described as a “Kashmiri leader”. Pakistan’s offer of talks on the Kashmir issue has been rejected by India, which said any dialogue should focus on terrorism.

While addressing the Saarc meet, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif angered India by referring to “the freedom movement” in Jammu and Kashmir.

Nawaz Shariff is batting for the FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT for the Pakistan Sponsored Terrorists.
Eeeeeeeeeediat!

 

[Rahul Singh]

Pakistanis are thinking they are dealing same government as Antonia controlled MMS. They are up for a rude wakeup.