The Oxford Union is holding a debate on October 30th titled “Kashmir Head-to-Head, The Crisis in Kashmir: Should Special Status Have Been Revoked?” The Union invited two Indian citizens to debate, one a senior official in the BJP of the Modi gang & the other a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Kashmiris are under lockdown, unable to travel in order to debate the BJP guy, but there are many Kashmiris living & working outside Kashmir who would be entirely brilliant in speaking on behalf of Kashmiris. Such an outrageous omission is part of the infantilizing of the oppressed which corresponds with vilifying all their young people as terrorists.
Daily Archives: October 30, 2019
New Delhi, India #StandWithKashmir event, October 29th, 2019.
Artwork by Rollie Mukherjee
Satyadeep Satya will be off a 30-day suspension tomorrow after violating community standards by standing with the oppressed & for being outspoken in support of Kashmiris. We will be glad to see him back.
I wanted to honor the tireless work of Kashmiri activist Jaina Maina by posting every day one of the many quite brilliant solidarity memes she has created. It was a way to amplify her voice which has been silenced by FB censors who deleted her entire account for standing up to Hindutva bullies & misogynists. But I see that in censoring Jaina, FB has removed all of her memes from my wall also. This is one that I have saved by copying it.
Hopefully, we can retrieve her memes & posts about Kashmir from other sources & her voice will not be silenced.
“Note: Three days ago a Mosque in France was bombed. The two persons arrested are 80-yr-old men belonging to the same Right Political Party of France who are represented in this EU delegation visiting Kashmir.”
–Sheikh Tajamul
The publicity on this rightwing dog & pony show in Kashmir is so bad that India should wish it never happened if the Modi gang had the capacity to make those kind of judgements. The delegation is made up of nationalists who never saw a war, occupation, or genocide they didn’t support. Be interesting to know if any made the same pilgrimage to Syria & Assad.
“I am not prepared to take part in a PR stunt for the Modi government and pretend that all is well. It is very clear that democratic principles are being subverted in Kashmir, and the world needs to start taking notice.”
Maybe I should rethink my policy of not posting crowdfunding because Khaled Mohammed is a longtime Palestinian activist who has urgent medical needs right now. He has been steadfast in support of human rights & needs our help now. Please consider donating to help him pay medical expenses for which he isn’t insured. Even if you cannot donate, you can share his appeal so he gets the help he needs. He has always been a political asset to the Palestinian & other freedom struggles.
It’s good that Indian media is in high dudgeon over the killing in Kashmir of five workers from West Bengal. But we’ll only find their indignation believable when they express an iota of empathy for or investigative rigor about child workers in Indian sweatshops or the suicides of Indian farmers because of neoliberal policies.
We should have extreme skepticism about reports that Kashmiri ‘terrorists killed five laborers from West Bengal’ on the same day as the rightwing EU delegation was sightseeing in Kashmir. Indian media has banner headlines about five day workers killed & one injured in Kashmir’s Kulgam district but also that four truckers have been killed by terrorists in Kashmir since the blockade began on August 5th. There isn’t a history of armed militants in Kashmir targeting workers.
India has been attempting to provoke military action from Pakistan which Pakistan has thus far resisted. How likely is it that they would sponsor armed militancy in Kashmir at this time? Over a year ago, Kashmiri human rights investigators estimated that no more than 250 armed militants remained in Kashmir. Since then, there have been several daily hunt to kill operations & reports of many militant deaths by the Indian Army. How credible is it that young men with assault rifles are traveling around Kashmir with nearly one-million Indian troops stationed every few yards, with caravans of troops moving around, with roadblocks & check points, with helicopter surveillance, with hunt to kill teams on the prowl?
Maybe some workers & truckers have been killed since August 5th. They probably–almost certainly–were not killed by Kashmiri militants because if any still remain, they are on the run for their lives. Our condolences if any workers actually died as a result of the Indian Army occupation, most likely at the hands of the Indian Army or agents provocateurs.