THIS is with reference to the report “India’s top court upholds end of special status for held Kashmir, orders polls” (Dec 11), according to which a five-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chand-rachud, ruled that Article 370 was an interim arrangement. The India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir was no different from other states in India, and the abrogation of Article 370 was an end of a 70-year exercise, the bench remarked.

The decision not only brings more pain and misery to the occupied valley’s predominantly Muslim population, but also exposes a glaring flaw in the judgement and ignorance of the United Nations Charter on the part of all the five judges on the bench. The UN Charter entails mandatory conditions for any country to lay claims related to territories, sovereignty and independence.

According to international lawyer Alexander Panin, to be recognised and accepted as an independent country, or a legitimate part of any state, it is mandatory that a country must complete the border demarcations with neighbouring countries, obtain their consent, document every detail and sign agreements with all such countries.

India has so far failed to obtain the consent of both Pakistan and China, the countries with which India shares its borders, and has territorial disputes. This is the reason that occupied Kashmir, and Aksai Chin, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh do not exist as part of Indian territories on the official UN global maps.

It is here that the Indian Supreme Court and all the five judges on the bench stand totally exposed. It is absolutely wrong to consider occupied Jammu and Kashmir as “no different” from other states in the country. It is hoped that UN Secretary-General António Guterres and peace-loving countries of the world will take notice of this ‘done deal’ between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and the five-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court.

The whole episode has also exposed the hypocrisy of the West, which has been supporting fascist states like India and Israel even though both of them happen to be involved in violating fundamental rights of the people they have been oppressing for the last several decades.

Abid Mahmud Ansari
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023