NGO must be reined in by the Government
A recent programme organised by the Amnesty International (AI) in Bangalore which witnessed the azadi slogans is a cause of serious security concern for India. The AI's attempt to malign the image of the Narendra Modi Government should be condemned and the organisation must be warned not to indulge in anti-national activities like this in future. The city police must be appreciated for filing a sedition case against AI over conducting such programmes. The AI must draw the limits of its activities, while deliberating on especially sensitive issues like Jammu & Kashmir. What pains the Government is that in fact the event was meant to highlight the human suffering caused by the Indian security personnel for incidents like rape, extra-judicial killings and other abuses in Kashmir. The AI must note that for the decades of sufferings of the people of J&K, Pakistan must be held responsible and boycotted at all multilateral forums. The global human rights watchdog must raise alarms across the world why a sovereign nation like Pakistan had officially claimed a terrorist Burhan Wani as martyr, who was at the forefront of the Hizbul Muzahideen, an organisation responsible for launching jihadi attacks on innocent civilians in India.
The AI's stating that the very action of the Bangalore city police for filing the sedition case against it showed the country's ‘lack of belief in fundamental rights' hold no ground at all. The Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution of India has given equal rights to all Indian citizens irrespective of caste, community, religion, gender, sex etc and obviously there is no doubt and debate about it. Sadly, the reasonableness in the existing narratives of J&K is missing in the sense that it has always been focused on Kashmir only and rest of the parts like Jammu, ladakh and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir did hardly acquire the centre stage in the past discussions and dialogues. Only recently, Modi has brought the whole picture into light and this must form any future comprehensive dialogue on the issues related to the State. Then, why is AI allowing its India Broken Families Campaign to stress on atrocities on Kashmiris and blaming the Armed Forces single-handedly for their plightIJ It must record and bring to public how militant organisations operating on both sides of the India-Pakistan border are recruiting young people like Wani and spoiling their youth. Human rights are acquired by birth and these are supposed to be exploited for cultivating the best of the qualities in one and to contribute to the overall development of humanity. In this regard, the violation of human rights of thousands of youths by Islamic groups directly funded and masterminded by Pakistan against India must be exposed by the AI's activists. It would be highly appreciated if AI can launch a public awareness campaign in J&K for appealing to the youth to come back to the mainstream and channelise their energy for a decent living instead of falling prey to the proxy war of Pakistan. AI being an internationally acclaimed organisation is expected to know the limits of rights to speech and as so much has already been happening over the recent protests in J&K, so it should have been cautious while discussing it. Hope those days are not far when the ordinary people will mount pressure on its youth and in turn, the youth will realise the futility of picking up the guns. Then AI will not be required to think about the plight of Kashmiris anymore.