It is rightly said “old habits die hard”. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, was once again seen frothing at India’s Jammu and Kashmir domicile law. While members of Gorkha community, Valmiki Samaj and West Pakistan refugees feel that the domicile certificate has restored their dignity and honour, Imran Khan, probably taking a cue from our Indian liberals and Kashmir centric parties, expressed panic and concern over the “change in the demography structure”.
Taking to Twitter the Pakistani PM claimed that the domicile certificate issued in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir is ‘illegal’ and ‘in violation of UNSC resolutions & international law’.
I have approached UN Secretary General and am reaching out to other world leaders. India must be stopped from this unacceptable path that further usurps the legal & internationally guaranteed rights of the Kashmiri people & seriously imperils peace and security in South Asia.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) June 30, 2020
Khan claimed that he has written to the UN Secretary General and will also reach out to world leaders to ‘stop India’ from the ‘unacceptable path’. A friendly reminder: the world leaders have stood by India and even during abrogation of Article 370 they refused to comment on the internal matter of India. Even UN snubbed Pakistan saying Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
Imran Khan started his nonsensical rants on Twitter comes days after the Kashmiri separatists and ‘liberals’ in India expressed their fear and anger against the domicile certificates.
Soon after it was reported that almost 25,000 people, including people from Dalit and Gorkha community, have been provided domicile certificates of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) along with the Pakistani-sponsored Hurriyat Conference on Friday condemned the issuance of domicile certificates.
They claimed that issuance of domicile certificates to non-locals is the first major step towards changing the demography of the Muslim-majority region. They also accused the RSS of hatching the conspiracy of trying to change the demography of Muslim-majority state. The PDP alleged that the Modi government was attempting to change the J&K’s Muslim majority character, target its unique identity and facilitate loot of its resources.
Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who leads the Pakistan-sponsored Hurriyat conference said that while initiating the implementation of a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir, the government is simultaneously exploiting its natural wealth and resources and rendering local people jobless, taking advantage of the situation as people are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse effects on their daily lives and livelihood.
Moreover, Sr. Advocate of Supreme Court, Prof. Bhim Singh and his political outfit party, National Panthers Party on Monday strongly condemned the issuance of Domicile Certificate to outsiders in Jammu and Kashmir and urged the President of India, Ramnath Kovind to immediately intervene into the matter in order to save the history, integrity and the fundamental rights of Permanent Residents of the state.
Shekhar Gupta and ThePrint joins the bandwagon
Besides, the so-called liberals also took to Twitter to express thier displeasure with Modi government’s decision to issue domicile certificates to non-locals in Jammu and Kashmir.
As expected the ‘liberal-secular journalist’ Shekhar Gupta, was also quick to join the bandwagon. Sharing an article from his leftist propaganda portal ThePrint, Shekhar Gupta insinuated that the domicile certificate issued to an IAS officer Navin Kumar Choudhary, a senior J&K-cadre officer from Bihar who has been posted in the region since the 1990s has triggered panic amongst the Kashmiris who now fear a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir.
The fears for ‘change in demography’ have been sown long back. Congress mouthpiece National Herald in an article in April had claimed that the issuance of domicile would be an attempt to ‘do a Palestine’ in the Union Territory. It likened settlement of Indian citizens within Indian boundaries as to Jewish settlement by Israel. “There is little doubt that the BJP will like to aggressively resume the implementation of its Hindutva agenda once the menace from Coronavirus subsides,” The Congress mouthpiece had claimed.
Similarly, leftist propaganda website The Wire in an article in May had also drawn parallels between India and Israel. The Wire had also indulged in fearmongering that if domicile certificates are issued to non-Kashmiri people, the Kashmiris may be rendered shelterless themselves. “All these initiatives have sparked fears of demographic change, militarised settlements, dispossession and alienation of land in Kashmir,” The Wire claimed.
Such fears were picked up by other international media outlets and shared by Indians who like to identify themselves as ‘liberals’.
And now, taking cue from the Indian ‘liberals’, Pakistan, too, has started parroting the same.
Meanwhile, over 30,000 people have till now received domicile certificates online in Jammu and Kashmir after the Indian government changed laws to grant residency to different categories of non-residents in the Union territory. As per the new domicile law, non-permanent residents who have residency proof of at least 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to get domicile certificates.
