India Should Reach Out to the People of
Gilgit-Baltistan
By Prateek Joshi September 01,
2017
On August 8 an activist from
Gilgit-Baltistan, Hasnain Ramal, was arrested under the anti-terrorism act. He
had been raising his voice against Pakistan, agitating for the state to grant
political and economic rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as per the
United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolutions on
Kashmir.
Ramal’s arrest is part of a strong crackdown Pakistan is
systematically carrying out on Gilgit-Baltistan’s peaceful activists. Besides
Ramal, activists including Baba Jan, Iftikhar, Dee Jay Mathal,
Qayum Balawar, Safdar Ali, Mehbob Advocate, Sannaullah, Quwat Khan, Inayat
Karim and Majidullah have been put behind bars.
Last
year, authorities picked up several activists, accusing them of working for
Indian intelligence to destabilize the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The Pakistani Army paints India as detrimental to the CPEC, which was announced
in 2015. Earlier this year, the government said it had deployed 15,000 troops,
part of the Special Security Division (SSD) which is headquartered in
Gilgit-Baltistan, to protect CPEC projects.
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mention of supporting voices from Balochistan
and Gilgit during his 2016 Independence Day speech was seen as a strong signal
of his deliberate shifting of Indian foreign policy.
“The
people of Balochistan, the people of Gilgit, the people of Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir have thanked me in such a manner, from places that I have never been
and never had a chance to meet, they have sent wishes to the people of India
and thanked us,” Modi said last year, “I am grateful to them.”
Following
Modi’s lead, news debates and public discussions have taken up issues of
foreign policy with more nuance. They have gone beyond discussing Pakistan as a
monolithic entity, and one can see discussions on Pakistan’s internal dynamics
finding a larger receptive audience.
This
achievement notwithstanding, the next challenge for New Delhi is to infuse
action into the vision Modi articulated in revamping Indian foreign policy.
This is not to say that India must carry out a tit-for-tat strategy of
exploiting Pakistan’s political fault lines, but instead invest more heavily in
leveraging its soft power.
For
instance, despite destabilized diplomatic relations and rising proxy-warfare in
the Kashmir valley, some of the foreign office’s policies have indeed resulted
in diplomatic achievements vis-a-vis Pakistan. Specifically, External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj’s Twitter diplomacy is already reaping dividends
internationally and Pakistan too has not been left behind. The flurry of medical visa clearances the foreign office announces via
Twitter from time to time comes as a huge relief to Pakistani patients who are
in dire need of treatment. Last month, when the case of an ailing resident from Rawalkot (part of what
India terms as Pakistan occupied Kashmir) — diagnosed with a tumor wished to
travel to New Delhi for treatment — surfaced, Swaraj immediately took to
Twitter announcing immediate help.
However,
India’s stance on certain key issues is still awaited, which, in the meantime
has given rise to a perception that India is yet to formulate a coherent policy
on Pakistan. Despite a year having passed since Modi mentioned people in
Pakistan communicating their grievances, the Indian foreign policy still has
yet to make much progress in reaching out to them.
In
Gilgit-Baltistan, Modi’s speech last year generated mixed reactions among
political activists. Despite some welcoming Modi’s attention, there was an
ambiguity regarding whether India was prepared to play an active role or
whether India’s outreach would remain mere rhetoric. India is still expected to
play a positive role in the resolution of the Gilgit-Baltistan issue but hope
seems to be waning as activists feel that no support will be forthcoming from
New Delhi.
An
indigenous political culture is conspicuously absent from Gilgit-Baltistan
partly due to strong control from Islamabad. As a result,parties like PML-N,
PPP and PTI vie for influence, with the present legislative assembly being
headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N. Expression of grievances
via local newspapers and local parties like Balawaristan National Front,
Karakorum National Movement, Gilgit Baltistan United Movement have been
stifled, allowing other parties to control the electoral scenario.
New
Delhi needs to explore mechanisms to communicate its support to
Gilgit-Baltistan’s people and its exiled leaders. In this era of digital
diplomacy, where even social media has the power to influence trends across
borders, it is high time that India’s diplomatic channels reach out to the
voices of Gilgit Baltistan. Hasnain Ramal’s case is a wake-up call for New
Delhi if it wishes to pursue the case of Gilgit-Baltistan seriously.
Prateek
Joshi is a researcher specializing on South Asia’s strategic affairs.
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