In a blatant challenge to international covenants, India is moving forward rapidly to amend the demographics of the predominantly Muslim Kashmir region, which is considered an "ethnic cleansing" that takes place in light of the indifference of the rest of the world, according to the US "Global Village Spice".
And the website confirms - in a report - that up to 25,000 people have been granted residence certificates in the Jammu and Kashmir region under Indian control, since May 18, which led local politicians to believe that it is the beginning of a systematic "demographic change policy" in the region.
These residence certificates give anyone the right to reside and assume government jobs in the region, something that until recently was only reserved for the local population.
Muslim majority
According to an official census conducted by India in 2011, Muslims constitute about 69% of the 12.5 million people who live in the region, while Hindus constitute 29%.
On August 5, 2019, India abolished the relative autonomy status in the region, and also abolished the Private Local Citizenship Law and the content under Article 35 (a) of the Indian Constitution that prohibits foreign arrivals - including Indian citizens - from settling and requiring government jobs in the region to preserve Demographic balance.
Last April - amid the ongoing closures due to the Coronavirus - the Indian government announced a new residence law that would make an unspecified number of non-local residents eligible for residency and employment in the region.
According to this law, anyone who has lived in the area for 15 years or studied there for 7 years is entitled to a residence certificate, and the children of government employees who have served in the state for 10 years also have the right of residence, and are considered eligible to claim local citizenship rights even if they do not They previously lived in the area.
Turn the scales
The American website affirms that the Kashmiri politicians in both parts of the region believe that the abolition of special citizenship rights aims to overturn the nature of the demographic composition that tends to rest in favor of the Muslim majority.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that since May 18, approximately 33,000 people have applied for residence certificates, which have been granted to about 25,000 of them.
Among these "new citizens" we find the Hindu refugees who settled in the region during the division of the subcontinent in 1947, and migrated from areas that are now part of Pakistan, but because of the laws of residency and special status in the state they were not granted the rights of local citizenship.