EDITORIAL: Indeed, it is heartening to note that Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that “China firmly opposes holding meetings in any disputed areas and will not attend such meeting”. China, therefore, deserves commendation for saying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Although India has sharply reacted to China’s decision, the latter’s decision has dealt a blow to the machinations of the former in a meaningful manner. In other words, the move made by China has taken the wind out of India’s sails.
Needless to say, it is only natural that India as the host of G20 summit next week would like to showcase its potential as a tourist destination to the delegates to improve its tourism industry. And for that it has several places, some as glamorous as Taj Mahal and some as ancient as artistically conceived temples in the south constructed during the reign of the Chola dynasty. But it would take them to Srinagar as participants of the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting from May 22 to 24.
Since the residents of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are at war against Indian occupation, the visit there of G20 leaders is likely to be exploited as their endorsement of its act to deprive the Kashmiris of their autonomous status by abrogation of Article 370 of India’s constitution. And to ensure that the delegates to the meeting in Srinagar are not caught up in any incident of exchange of gun fire between the Kashmiri freedom fighters and Indian troops extensive safety and security measures are being put in place. As Kashmiri leadership has warned against their visit to Srinagar the independent observers of the tenuous conditions there too have now warned against New Delhi’s nefarious designs to exploit the G20 meeting in order to secure the G20 support.
One of them is the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, who has already forewarned that the Indian government is seeking to normalize its illegal occupation by instrumentalizing a G20 group meeting in Srinagar and portray it as an international ‘’seal of approval’’. This, he said, was despite what Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told the UN Human Rights Council a few weeks ago, describing it as a “worrying human rights situation in the Kashmir region”.
In a statement about this meeting, Varennes highlighted the massive human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir, including torture, extrajudicial killings, political persecutions and suppression of free media. He has pointed out that “the G20 is unwillingly providing a veneer of support to a façade of normalcy at a time when massive human rights violations, illegal and arbitrary arrests, political persecutions, restrictions and even suppression of free media and human rights defenders continue to escalate. International human rights obligations and UN Declaration of Human Rights should still be upheld by organizations such as the G20.” He concluded his statement by stating that “the situation in IIOJK should be decried and condemned, not pushed under the rug and ignored with the holding of this meeting.”
Be that as it may, it is quite clear that the governments of G20 countries are fully aware of what India is up to in occupied Kashmir. Unfortunately, however, their behavior in this whole affair does rather savour of hypocrisy—they are certainly not without blame themselves.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023