Le Monde: In Kashmir, Indian democracy has been defiled with shame

Le Monde said that France and the Western world cannot remain silent in the face of the tragedy in Kashmir, and in the face of India's nationalist "reaction" with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She noted that this day (August 5, 2020) marks the first anniversary of the violent operation by Modi in the Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir region, the Himalayan-dominated Muslim state, which has enjoyed since 1949 an autonomy stipulated in Indian Constitution.

The French newspaper added that Moody was placed on August 5, 2019, with the brutality of this region under the direct control of New Delhi and its isolation from the world, and all communications with the outside world were cut and the residents were placed under a tight siege for months, long before the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

She also said that her special envoy to the region confirmed that the Indian government practiced various forms of torture and arbitrary detentions in Kashmir, as well as elected officials, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and ordinary citizens in prisons, not to mention the replacement of Muslims with Hindus in strategic positions in the region.

Le Monde noted that the region has been experiencing a revolt for three decades, supported by neighboring Pakistan, but stressed that infiltration across the border has fallen sharply, but it is the arbitrary practices of the central government that have been reinforcing anti-Indian sentiments.

She added that what actually fueled the violence was the repeated humiliation suffered by the Kashmiri Muslims even though they originally chose to join India, which was considered at the time as evidence that India is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country, which was very important to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first head of the government of India after independence from Britain .

And this particular India based on the principles of secularism and equality is, according to the newspaper, what the current prime minister is working to demolish, in the name of the national project: Hindutva or Hindu India, and to impose this, the Modi government has no qualms about doing anything, including obliterating the history of Islamic heritage and the history of Nehru, gouging the mouths of the intelligentsia and manipulating democracy by buying the votes of deputies.

The fault of the West

Le Monde stressed that the West was wrong to turn a blind eye to the Kashmiri tragedy, because what Moody's national government had done was only the first step in an agenda entirely directed against Muslims.

As proof of this, Le Monde said that last December Modi passed a law banning Muslim refugees from acquiring Indian citizenship, and this craze against Muslims reached a climax at the end of February when violence erupted in the northern areas of New Delhi, killing About 50 Muslims, many of whom lost their businesses and homes.

And Modi, Le Monde adds, chooses the anniversary of his assault on Kashmir to launch the controversial decades-old project in Ayodhya to build a Hindu temple instead of a mosque that was built there.

Le Monde condemned France, which claims to be the cradle of human rights, in silence as it watched the national retreat of a country presenting itself as the largest democracy in the world, noting that Paris seemed only interested in selling more Rafale aircraft to the Indian army. As for President Donald Trump, he is eager to introduce himself as a friend of a very useful prime minister of a country to counter the growing influence of China, according to the newspaper.

She concluded by saying that the current era of mistrust in Beijing may push Westerners to overlook the worrying development of democracy in India for a long time to come, as the Indian subcontinent is in a good position to become the new factory of the world instead of China, and therefore there is a risk that Kashmiris will be victims Realistic Western politics in Asia, and the fact that the issue of this minority cannot be viewed as a simple "internal problem", as is Modi's wish, because there is neither lasting peace nor a worthy democracy based on human rights violations, as the newspaper put it.