J&K: India prevails at UN, but HR an issue
India prevailed diplomatically by not having the Kashmir issue opened up formally in an open session of the United Nations Security Council or have it recognised in any kind of statement thanks to no small measure by some sharp and astute diplomacy led by its Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin - but now the focus will shift how it deals with the fallout of the removal of the region’s special status and the human rights situation there, at least among the western countries that have backed it.
When Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi requested an “urgent meeting” of the Council with the participation of its representative, all the members of the Council but China were not in favour of the move to reinternationalise it having accepted that Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
But China using its prerogative as a Council member pushed for an informal, closed-door consultation. At the meeting on August 16, it could get an agreement on having its president issue a press statement, the lowest form of recording the sense of a meeting.
The surprise here was Britain joining China in requesting the president’s press statement – a move influenced by the massive Pakistani demonstration in London the previous day – despite the official position that Kashmir was a bilateral issue. A press statement could have brought a measure of acknowledgment of international attention to the Kashmir issue in 54 years.
The last time India-Pakistan affairs figured in the Council was 48 years ago, but that was in the context of Bangladesh’s War of Independence. The United States backed Pakistan in 1965 and 1971, but its attitude has turned 180 degrees towards India in line with the changed world scenario.
Qureshi acknowledged this state of affairs when he said that no one was waiting for Pakistan “with garlands” at the Council because internationally “the atmosphere is not favourable” to Pakistan. He blamed it on trade as India has a “market of 1 billion people,” rather than his country’s ties to global terrorism.
Outside the Council also Pakistan has not found any support among nations, its Muslim religious card having failed to get any Islamic republics or monarchies on board. The Palestine card it has played – linking Kashmir to it – at every opportunity has turned out be not the ace but a joker.
Emerging as an economic powerhouse and a key player in the delicately balanced 21st century geopolitical scenario has been a reason for India’s influence – as also the understanding among the rulers of the Muslim countries that India has the third largest Muslim population – has been a factor.
Having dismantled the special constitutional status for Kashmir and brought it to historic turning point, the mighty challenge ahead for India is how it manages the situation.
Speaking before India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Trump at the G7 summit in France, a senior US official said Trump “will likely want to hear how Prime Minister Modi intends to calm regional tensions in light of this significant move.”
The western nations now give high priority to human rights and that has been underlined by them while supporting India’s position that the disputes are bilateral. After meeting Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “France will remain attentive to ensuring that the interests and rights of the civilian population are duly taken into account in the territories on both sides of the Line of Control.
German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Adebahr said Berlin is urging New Delhi to respect civil rights under the constitution and called on “the Indian government to hold dialogue with the population concerned about its plans, its intentions.”
The UN had tended to go easy on India’s human rights record in Kashmir, but
Emerging as an economic powerhouse and a key player in the delicately balanced 21st century geopolitical scenario has been a reason for India’s influence – as also the understanding among the rulers of the Muslim countries that India has the third largest Muslim population – has been a factor
former United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein changed course with a report issued in his last days in office last year. That forced Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to endorse him and put Kashmir on the table. “All the action of the Human Rights High Commissioner is an action that represents the voice of the UN in relation to that issue,” he said, making a distinction between “political matters” that are internal or bilateral and human rights mandate that applies everywhere.
There is hypersensitivity – although selective – to treatment of Muslims by China and Myanmar to counterbalance to criticisms of Muslim countries and of Islamic extremists. Pakistan and China came in for intense criticism from the US and Britain at a recent informal meeting of the Security Council for their treatment of religious minorities, with Beijing drawing criticism from several others including France. However, non-Western countries – with the exception of Pakistan and China – are uninterested in the human rights issue. The Western media that is generally anti-India with a tinge of Hinduphobia has been critical of New Delhi’s actions in Kashmir, a fact noted with satisfaction by Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN. They support plebiscite or referendum citing the Council resolution, but hide the fact that Resolution 47, which they cite, made Pakistan withdrawing its personnel from all of Kashmir as the first pre-condition for a plebiscite. The selective channeling of facts will influence public perceptions.
The Left, like the media, also has the tendency to turn pro-Pakistan and this plays out in national politics. British Labour Party leader tweeted, “The situation in Kashmir is deeply disturbing. Human rights abuses taking place are unacceptable. The rights of the Kashmiri people must be respected and UN resolutions implemented.”
Three Labour Party members of European Parliament have vowed to bring up the Kashmir in the forum – presumably if they are still there after Brexit.
If Britain under the Conservatives sided with China at the Council meeting on Kashmir to unsuccessfullly ask for a press statement by the president, it is because Muslims are about 5 percent of the British population, while Hindus are only about 1.5 percent – and elections may be coming soon.