Prime Minister Modi’s recent statements could help
end the troubled region’s long international isolation. August 24, 2016
The fact that the Indian Constitution recognises
the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as its citizens is often lost in the continuing
stalemate in Kashmir
At the all-party conference in New Delhi, and later in his August 15
Independence Day address to the nation, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, referred to the people of
Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
On both occasions, Modi also talked about human rights violations in
Pakistan-occupied Balochistan. His statement came a day after Pakistan’s Prime
Minister, Nawaz Sharif, dedicated his country’s Independence Day celebrations
to the freedom of Kashmir from Indian rule.
PM Modi’s statement was well-received by Indian political parties
including the Indian National Congress.
The current Bangladesh government and former Afghanistan President Hamid
Karzai supported the statement, causing concern in Pakistan’s leadership
circles. On Thursday, August 19, India announced a five-point agenda to resume
talks with Pakistan, one of which proposes a discussion on the vacation of
Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK.
Pakistan has responded to India’s approach with staged demonstrations in
Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan condemning Modi. As expected,
Gilgit-Baltistan’s assembly on Friday passed a resolution against the Indian
Prime Minister’s statement.
The president of Pakistan Peoples’ Party, Gilgit-Baltisan chapter,
reiterated that despite systematic and widespread human rights violations and
neglect, the majority of the people of this disputed region would still opt to
become Pakistani citizens. In Skardu, teachers brought students as young as
six-year-old to the streets to raise anti-India slogans, which points to state
indoctrination against the neighbouring country. One government official, Shams
Mir, while addressing a rally in Gilgit, vowed to turn the protesting children
into suicide bombers against India.
Instead of building colleges and universities in Gilgit-Baltistan,
Pakistan’s establishment keeps the region’s students ignorant by spreading
myths and uses them as foot soldiers against India, USA and Afghanistan. Distorting the
worldview of children is creating a damaged collective psyche with lasting
implications for Gilgit-Baltistan and its neighbours. Equally responsible are
the local teachers who promote the colonial policy of political indoctrination
and incitement to violence, and squander the opportunity to educate students
about the constitutional framework, or the lack thereof, which bars
Gilgit-Baltistan from becoming a part of Pakistan.
It is telling that no locals organised a procession against the
Pakistani establishment which repeatedly refuses to accept Gilgit-Baltistan as
a part of the country. While Pakistani occupiers expect the people of
Gilgit-Baltistan to spew venom against India, they shamelessly block basic
constitutional rights enjoyed by the people of Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu to the
locals.
Our leadership could serve Gilgit-Baltistan and its people better by
exposing Pakistan’s illegal occupation, as well the military and its apparatus
of terror networks which have massacred thousands of people in the name of
religion and burned our villages to alter local demography through force.
Similarly, real patriotism would be to condemn and protest against Pakistani
rulers for illegally transferring thousands of kilometres of Gilgit-Baltistan’s
land to China which originally belongs to the Hunza and Shigar districts.
Pakistani media might not agree with this assessment, but the majority
of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan would expect their elected representatives to
expose the culprits in the government and military who incarcerate our youth
for demanding rights, loot our natural resources, encroach upon our private
lands to build the China-led economic corridor (CPEC), hurt local cultural
identity and national character through a policy of assimilation and block our
trade routes towards Ladakh to impose economic isolation and dependence.
Such policies only expose the double standards of Pakistan’s rulers who
routinely advocate better trade relations with India through Punjab.
The fact that the Indian Constitution recognises the people of
Gilgit-Baltistan as its citizens is often lost in the continuing stalemate in
Kashmir. The failure on the part of previous Indian governments to address this
crucial reality and engage the people of Gilgit-Baltistan has in many ways led
to the continued impasse in the region. The statement of PM Modi is in keeping
with his constitutional duty as head of the government and provides a fresh
opportunity to resolve a conflict that is holding back the entire region.
The international community must recognise that Pakistan’s interference
in the engagement between the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Indian
government and UN staff puts it in conflict with the UN mechanisms which it so
often cites.
UN resolutions call on Pakistan to withdraw from the occupied regions of
Gilgit-Baltistan and Mirpur and Muzaffarabad (PoK) and India to engage with
stakeholders, which must include the leadership of Gilgit-Baltistan. If India
wants to see resolution on this long-standing regional issue, it must directly
engage the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and implement confidence-building
measures (CBMs) specific to Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan. At the same time, the
activists of Gilgit-Baltistan should not hesitate from contacting the
leadership in Jammu and Ladakh to iron out misunderstandings.
The people of Gilgit-Baltistan must realise that Modi is ending
Gilgit-Baltistan’s long international isolation. The statement by itself
does not show a policy change but Modi’s message is clear: Gilgit-Baltistan,
Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir are all equal stakeholders and the issue cannot be
solved by focusing on Kashmir alone. It is a positive sign that India is
advancing a policy to address the region’s constitutional question by bringing
Gilgit-Baltistan on par with Kashmir at the negotiating table.
The writer is the Washington DC-based Director of the Gilgit-Baltistan
National Congress, a diaspora group formed in 2010 to raise awareness of rights
violations in the G-B region.
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