Can Modi and Trump be trusted with putting Kashmiris as central stakeholders?

Donald Trump is set to visit India on February 24-25. Both India and the United States are in the throes of unprecedented crises that threaten the very premise of their democracies. Despite “Howdy Modi” in America and the proposed “Namaste Trump” in India, relations between the two countries are uneven at present. The US is working towards a limited trade agreement while India’s approach remains protectionist and its economy is in severe distress. Trump’s relation to several European allies, strategic NATO partners, and Global South countries has been problematic. He has repeatedly disregarded relevant counsel and focused on policies and actions that galvanise his supporters. His objectives vis-à-vis India are opaque.

The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party has engineered the rapid ascent of Hindu nationalism. This illiberal new order incorporates four features, as noted in Majoritarian State, that are resonant with Trump’s US agenda: populism, nationalism, authoritarianism and majoritarianism. This new dispensation evidences a disregard for social facts, democratic and secular institutions and the rule of law. Institutions in the US are stronger and have deeper roots. In India today, anti-minority rhetoric and violence are matched by the popularisation of revisionist history. Assertions of imminent danger posed by internal and external enemies to the nation and the targeting of dissent as ‘anti-national,’ and Islamophobiaerode an already fragile democracy deeply infiltrated by majoritarian nationalists.

In India, the legacy of prolific dissentpersists, challenging the abject and unconstitutional actions that target minorities via the implementation of the disastrous Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, and the use of the other existing laws such as the Enemy Property Act (1968). Official response to such dissent has been markedly authoritarian. Community members, students, media persons, scholars, public intellectuals, lawyers, artists are being targeted by state actors and the Hindu Right with impunity. Political opposition is in disarray and many have shifted to the right-of-center, as an analysis of Arvind Kejriwal’s recent election campaign in Delhi reveals.

Trump is scheduled to visit Gujarat. The pogrom against Muslims took place in Gujarat in 2002, where Modi was head of government, and proved to be a turning point in the making of majoritarian India. Today, a wall is being constructed to conceal the slums and the destitution along the route that Trump will travel.

Actualising a long-held objective of the Hindu Right, on 5 August 2019, the Indian government effectively sought to nullify Article 370 and revoke 35A of the Indian Constitution, to disestablish the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and divide it into separate union territories under the direct rule of the central government. Various news media and civil society reports have documented the inhumane conditions since the lockdown. They include torture of children, the elderly, and women; illegal detentions, mass detentions; house arrests of political leaders, denial of the basic needs of life, curtailment of freedom of speech, movement and dissent,falsification and amplification of social facts by the state, and the closure of sacred places.

The Washington Post reported that apple growers are seeing “losses… and the business might suffer its worst year since the beginning of the insurgency.” Many are apprehensive that egregious circumstances could foster an armed uprising within.Stéphane Dujarric, United Nations Secretary-General spokesperson, asked“all parties to exercise restraint.”

The subjection of Kashmiris to militarized governancehas endured through the protracted conflict since 1990. They have lived under impunity laws, witness to displacement,enforced disappearances, sexualised violence, torture, extrajudicial executions, and the burial of civilians in unknown and mass graves. Refuting the demonisation of powerful civilian resistance, Kashmiris across every diversity ask to be recognised as principal stakeholders in all matters pertaining to Kashmir’s future.

Back in the US, some presidential candidates issued statements following August 5, expressing concern. Numerous communities of the South Asia diaspora, and allies, expressed strong dissent to India’s actions in Kashmir. The international press offered wide coverage. In September 2019, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations issued an appeal to end the “humanitarian crisis,” in its report before the annual Foreign Appropriations Act for 2020. Senator Christopher Van Hollen proposed an amendment, unanimously approved by the bipartisan senate committee, that “notes with concern the current humanitarian crisis in Kashmir and calls on the Government of India to: fully restore telecommunications and Internet services; lift its lockdown and curfew; and release individuals detained pursuant to the Government’s revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.”

In October, the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearingchaired by Congressman Brad Sherman, focused on Kashmir.In November, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing entitled, “Jammu and Kashmir in Context.” In November, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced House Resolution 724: “Condemning the human rights violations taking place in Jammu and Kashmir and supporting Kashmiri self-determination.” In December, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal introduced House Resolution 745, entitled, “Urging the Republic of India to end the restrictions on communications and mass detentions in Jammu and Kashmir…and preserve religious freedom for all residents;” and Congressman Steve Watkins spoke on the House Floor in support of the resolution. As of February 13, 2020, HR 745 had 61 bipartisan cosponsors. What is Trump’s response?

The internationalisation of the Kashmir issue has expanded awareness and resulted in some censure and engagement. However, India’s value as a defensivewall against China (and Pakistan) and access to its markets remains the US priority. The US negates concern that its support is enabling India’s rapid descent into a fascisticmajoritarian state. Indian officials reject critique as ‘national shaming,’ against the ‘national interest.’ Focused on image projection, they keep out international emissarieswho express concern.

In December 2019, China and Pakistan requested UNSC meetings on Kashmir. France vetoed the ask. In January 2020, India’s Supreme Court pronouncedthe “indefinite government-imposed internet shutdown in the state” to be unconstitutional. On February 16, 2020, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated: “it is of utmost importance to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

In January 2020, the International Court of Justice ruled that Myanmar must act to protect the Rohingya.However, no mechanisms seek to hold powerful states like India to the principles of international justice.

Kashmiris continue to live in conditions akin to collectivised internment…In mid-February, using the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, police begancriminal charges against persons using Virtual Private Networks to access social media and websites disallowed by the Indian government.

Trump has indicatedthat Modi has sought his mediation on Kashmir, which the Indian government has denied. Trump has received criticismas having undermined movement forward on Israel and Palestine. Both of these leaders are a part of the global riseof far-right political leaders who are loath to accept reasoned differences of perspective. Can they be trusted to navigate the Kashmir conflict with Kashmiris as central stakeholders, and inclusive of other states with a stake in the matter, such as Pakistan and China?

(The writer is a scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and coeditor of Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India. Views expressed are her own)