158. Did the western media cover the removal of Article 370 in Kashmir shamefully? P S Remesh Chandran

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Did the western media cover the removal of Article 370 in Kashmir shamefully?

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 1 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The view that ‘the western media covered the removal of Article 370 in Kashmir shamefully’ cannot be agreed with. The western media covered the Kashmir move and its aftermath just right, especially the biggest and the most renowned newspapers among them. Certainly they did not write what the BJP of India expected (and wanted) them to write, which they cannot do, but what their representatives and other’s news agencies reported from the field and satellite photos revealed. Remember that after the Kashmir bifurcation by the BJP government, all camera lenses in almost all news and even defense satellites of almost all countries are turned towards India and Kashmir. Whether they are revolving or stationary, the objective is the same. So, there is no question, or possibility, of misleading them. What do you think the Satellite Image Interpretation Centres of these countries and news agencies are doing?

Article Title Image 2 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

If opposition leaders are arrested and detained to prevent them from immediately going to the Supreme Court for filing a petition to challenge the splitting of Jammu & Kashmir, these foreign media cannot be expected to fall in line and report that they were detained because they were a threat to India’s national security. They will report that they were arrested to prevent them from immediately running to the Supreme Court. They report what the Indian government do, not what the Indian government want them to think they do. Indian media may do that because except a very few among them they have no credibility in the world press. But the foreign media won't do that because they are not going to sacrifice their credibility accrued through decades of free reporting for a BJP which many in the world have not even heard of and which they consider just a regional communal political party in India which is of no significance to the world if they decide to neither travel to India nor import anything from India.

Article Title Image 3 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

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This importing from India is more relevant in this context than traveling to India. Why did many foreign countries including the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the British got interested in India in the first place? It was pepper that is essential in cold countries, and silk. Fine silk can be made artificially now but pepper cannot be. Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil and China are the biggest producers and exporters of pepper in that order in the world. India and China combined produce not as much as Indonesia and Indonesia produces only a half that of Vietnam. This means even if pepper import from India stops, the cold world can survive. At least a portion of the world stopping importing from India would be a boon for other countries. In pepper, it would be a godsend for Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil and China. What India looses in pepper trade Indonesia, Vietnam and China in Asia and South East Asia will gain.

Article Title Image 4 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Even as early as February 2019, there were people’s protests going on in Indonesia in front of the Indian Embassy in Jakarta, predominantly demonstrations on the Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5. Their demands were ‘the Indian government stop the military operations and human right violations in Kashmir, give the Kashmiri people a chance to choose their future, and the people in the region should choose their fate with a referendum promised by the United Nations’. No wonder Indonesia was the first to stand with Kashmir against the Kashmir abrogation by the India government in July 2019.

Article Title Image 5 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

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Indonesia’s support now means Malaysia’s support in future and Malaysia’s support now means Turkey’s support in future. Malaysia, which is double in area than Pakistan, promptly joined Saudi Arabia, which is the largest in the Middle East, the second-largest in the Arab world, the fifth-largest in Asia, and the 12th-largest in the world, in a move not only to dominate the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is divided on this issue of India’s abrogation of Kashmir but also in reproving the one-sided move by India by calling for settlement of the conflict in Kashmir by taking into account the interests of the people of the region also in strict observance of the past resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on this issue.

Article Title Image 6 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

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Indonesia’s fondest trade partner, Turkey, is one of the largest peninsulas in Asia, is larger than France and UK put together, is surrounded on three sides by the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea and so is situated at the crossroads of the Balkan, Caucasian, Middle East, and Mediterranean countries, bridges the continents of Europe and Asia, and is strategical in position and influence in world geography and politics. In June 2018 India turned down Turkey’s offer to mediate with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. In January 2019 Turkey asked the Kashmir issue to be settled not unilaterally by India but through multilateral mediation adhering to UN resolutions. In August 2019 Turkey was left with no way but to unmistakably stand with Pakistan against India’s abrogation of Jammu & Kashmir. The only one point the Turkish president and the world press accepted as up to standard was the Indian prime minister’s testimonial that India’s Kashmir abrogation was ‘essentially due to cross-border terrorism’. But the UN had already ‘slammed the change of status and restrictions imposed in Kashmir by India unilaterally’. So the stand of the UN in special and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation in general is clear in this regard. How else should the world media report this situation? That the world stands united with BJP in suddenly taking things into their hands and deciding things unilaterally and disturbing the peace in Kashmir?

Article Title Image 7 By Mostafa Meraji. Graphics: Adobe SP.

More English articles by the author at:
http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/

Malayalam articles by the author at:
http://sahyadrimalayalam.blogspot.in/

More political article by the author here:
http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/p/list-of-political-articles.html

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

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Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

Tags:

Western Media, World Press, Article370, Jammu Kashmir Bifurcation Abrogation Conflict, Islamic Cooperation, UN Referendum, Security Council, Kashmir Solidarity, Indian Media, BJP Government, // Satellite Images, News Agencies, Communal Politics, Travel India, Pepper Producers Exporters, Turkey Mediation, Cross Border Terrorism,

First published on: Published on September 8, 2019