Moon Desk: India’s Foreign Minister Jaishankar’s latest statement on Kashmir is India’s fascist attempt at distorting histo-legal truth on Kashmir. The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) has condemned Indian FM’s recent remarks on Kashmir. The Pakistan’s continued stance against India’s position on the region, viewing it as a violation of international norms and UN resolutions. The true perspective of Kashmir upholds its status as a universally recognized disputed territory between India and Pakistan.
Whereas, India unjustifiably views it as an integral part of its territory, Pakistan rightly considers it a disputed region whose future should be determined by the people, often citing UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite via upholding Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.While debriefing the truth, Jaishankar said: “After the Second World War, the longest standing illegal presence and occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India, what we saw in Kashmir.
Now we went to the UN, what was an invasion was made into a dispute.So the attacker and the victim were put on par, who were the culpable parties?And yet seen from a historical and international law context, Jaishankar’s Kashmir assertion holds no truth.India’s assertion of complete sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir is absolutely fallacious.Needless to say, the historical arguments revolving around the circumstances of the state’s accession to India in 1947, intrinsically support Kashmir as a disputed territory.
Additionally, the principle of self-determination, as enshrined in international law, is often invoked to question the legitimacy of India’s control, particularly given the unresolved status of the region.India’s unjust occupation, annexation of Kashmir is largely attributed to its settler colonialism of Kashmir, which is universally condemned under the international treaties and the UN resolutions, Needless to say, several international treaties and conventions address aspects of settler colonialism, although few explicitly condemn it by name.
The Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) is relevant as it prohibits the transfer of an occupying power’s population into occupied territory, which is applicable to some instances of settler colonialism in both Israel and India.The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) includes provisions that could apply to certain acts associated with settler colonialism, particularly regarding war crimes.
Additionally, various UN resolutions and declarations, such as those concerning self-determination and human rights, condemn settler colonialism by affirming the rights of indigenous populations and condemning the denial of those rights.Moreover, the UNGA’s resolution 1514 passed in 1960 holds a universal voice against settler colonialism , which is premised on the state’s recruitment of a class of settlers whose goal is to not only occupy the land of the Indigenous but also to eliminate the Indigenous who stand in their way.
This is what has been the fascist attempt of Narendra Modi to abrogate and revoke article 370 and 35-A from the Indian Constitution.As per the United Nations’ Charter, indigenous communities do, in fact, have rights recognized by the law.The fascist pursuits– of degrading its importance in law are entailed by political expediencies adopted by the so-called imperatives of western geopolitics –seem opposing international peace, justice and human rights.
