Modi to meet Kashmiri leaders in Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Singh Modi will meet the leadership of Kashmir today, which will include 14 pro- India Kashmiri leaders, four amongst them are former chief ministers of occupied Kashmir.

The meeting has been arranged today in New Delhi to discuss the elections and delimitation of territories in the occupied area.

Leaders invited are Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi and Mehbooba Mufti, all being prominent leaders of Kashmir. However, the All Parties Hurriyat Conclave (APCH) has not been invited by the Modi-led Government.

This would be the first political engagement between the Kashmiri leadership and the BJP government in the Centre since New Dehli scrapped Article 370 of its Constitution in August 2019 – a move strongly opposed by the people and Pakistan and China.

This would be the first political meeting between Kashmiri leaderships and the Modi government since New Dehli had scrapped article 370 of its constitution in August 2019, which was strongly opposed by Pakistan and China.

Modi should speak to Pakistan too, Mehbooba Mufti

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Mehbooba Mufti has asked the Prime Minister before the meeting, to talk to Pakistan as well on the Kashmir issue. According to her when India can go to Doha for the Taliban Talk, then they can talk to Pakistan as well when the two countries can have a dialogue with one another.

She spoke about her agenda for the Modi meeting. Mufti said that the leaders will put forth their views and press for demand to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.

Indian media reports indicate that the main aim of the Indian government is to get the delimitation exercise completed and hold elections in occupied Kashmir as soon as possible.

“Modi plans to kick-start the political process leading to Assembly elections, the first step towards having an elected government in the Union Territory of J&K,” said The Indian Express. 

Mushaal Mullick terms Modi meets a ‘theatre and dramatic move’.

In a video message recorded before the meeting, Kashmiri activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick referred to Modi’s meeting as a “theatre and drama”.

She said the Indian prime minister and his government had “made every Kashmiri stateless, without an identity and snatching their flag and statehood”.

Mullick said Modi expected the world to believe there is normalcy and democracy “on the graveyard of innocent Kashmiris when every Kashmiri is being silenced and is being forced to evacuate”.

She said those who represented the people of occupied Kashmir were being locked up, beaten up, harassed, and sent to dead cells.

“Bravo to Mr. Modi for believing the world to be so foolish, or expecting it to be deaf and dumb or, with eyes wide shut that they can’t see what you’ve done to us?” she asked.

Hurriyat representative Altaf Hussain Wani also rejected the conference, saying that holding talks with “so-called politicians” and giving the impression that the situation in IoK is returning to normalcy, is wrong.

“The Indian government has always betrayed the people of Kashmir,” he said, adding that there was no other option for the people of Kashmir but for them to be given the right to self-determination.