By M Rama Rao*
There is much jubilation in Jammu and Kashmir and gloom in Pakistan as picturesque Srinagar, which happens to be a favourite hunting ground for Pakistan – based and-backed terrorists, is hosting a G-20 meeting on tourism.
Pakistan is not even part of the G-20 but has built its boycott demand by glibly talking about rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, while taking in its stride the flaying by Human Rights Watch (HRW) its reign of arbitrary arrests of political activists and peaceful protesters.
China has decided to ‘stay away’ or simply ‘boycott’ Srinagar meeting. Its decision is shameless and pathetic. The world is aware of how it treats its Uyghur Muslim community in the far western Xinjiang province of the country.
The Chinese Muslims have lost virtually all rights to live a decent and tension-free life as Muslims. None of the Islamic nations, who are all part of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has raised their voice against the inhuman treatment of their brethren in China reduces.
A stinging rebuke of the OIC and its hypocrisy came from an unexpected quarter the other day – Vlodomyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, the victim of Russian aggression. During a halt in Jeddah to address an Arab League gathering while on his way to attend as a special guest the G-7 meeting in Hiroshima, he lamented that the rich Arab nations had turned a ‘blind eye’ towards the Russian invasion.
As an aside it may be mentioned that the Jeddah meeting of the Arab League was special because of the first attendance of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after his country was readmitted to the group. He is among the few world leaders to have supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Syria was thrown out of Arab League in May 2011 because of the brutal manner in which the anti- Bashar protests were crushed. Oppression in Syria has not ended, but it is now, o.k. for the Arab League?
A media report has said that Pakistan, ever looking for opportunities to rundown India, is behind the Srinagar boycott move. Over the past couple of months Pakistan has been staging protests over India’s plans to host G-20 moot in Srinagar.
It approached G-20 members, particularly its Islamic nation -members, not to attend any gathering at Srinagar as an expression of ‘solidarity’ with the people of Jammu and Kashmir ‘oppressed’ by India.
Ironically, suppressing dissent, by force and beyond the bounds of the law, is a common thread that runs through the self—proclaimed upholders of Islamic values. Pakistan is no lily white. Its oppression of minority Muslim communities – Ahmadiyas and Shia Hazaras is well documented.
Frankly, Pakistan was expected to do all it could to sabotage any meeting in Srinagar in view of the massive campaign it has set off against India after New Delhi rolled back the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Its brash foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, a descendant of the hysterically anti-India Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (executed by a military dictator), carried his tirade against India to all the countries he has been visiting.
The first nation to promptly come to the aid of Pakistan was China, which is hardly surprising given the animosity the two countries share against India.
But in opposing Srinagar tourism meet, China is giving vent to its frustration at India’s rejection of its China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through territories forcibly occupied by its ‘iron brother’ Pakistan soon after it was created by the British by bisecting India in August 1947.
On its part, China is also in occupation of some Kashmir landmass gifted to it, well, illegally Pakistan.
Pakistan inevitably quotes a more than seven-decade old UN Security Council resolution that, according to Islamabad, puts Jammu and Kashmir in the category of ‘internationally recognized disputed territory’ and calls for a plebiscite to settle the ‘dispute’.
This is Pakistan way of seeking legitimacy to its Kashmir-specific wild anti-India shout outs.
But it is a misleading propaganda.
Because, among the first caveats in the UNSC resolution requires Pakistan to vacate its aggression in Jammu and Kashmir. It has not done as yet. In fact, one-third of the composite state has been under Pakistani occupation since 1948.
More importantly, the seventh UN Secretary General, Kofi Atta Annan, had described the UNSC resolution of 1948 as dated and irrelevant. He made the assertion way back in 2001 during a visit to South Asia.
Do the nations that support Pakistan on Kashmir know this?
If they do, will they ask their ‘brother’ to put a thinking cap?
More so, as most countries of the world have ceased to consider 1948 motion to be relevant.
And what about the grave human rights violations in the countries that have thought it fit to acknowledge Pakistan call?
Apart from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is among the countries with an appalling human rights record. How the Arab kingdom deals with dissent had left the world shell-shocked when a prominent dissident who happened to be even related to the Saudi royalty was murdered brutally while visiting his country’s embassy in the Turkish capital.
And Turkey! Under President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has become an authoritarian state, and has renounced its secular credentials. Once counted among India’s friends, Turkey has now turned blindly to Pakistan and joins it in anti-India outpourings, especially on Kashmir.
Put simply, neither Pakistan nor any of its allies in authoritarianism are role models. And cannot be taken seriously. So is their decision to stay away from Srinagar moot!
More so when they are silenced by German envoy Philipp Ackermann’s remark: “We’re members of G20 and want to support the Indian presidency. The Indian presidency has done an excellent job so far. So, why should we not go to Srinagar (to attend G-20 meet on tourism?”
—*The writer is a senior Delhi -based journalist