UNITED NATIONS, Jun 05 (APP): A prominent Kashmiri leader has said that the higher voter turnout in recent elections in Indian-occupied Kashmir that the BJP leadership boasted about was in fact a rejection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies in the disputed territory.
“The higher voter turnout was the reflection of the rejection of Modi’s colonial and anti-democratic ways in Kashmir,” Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary-General of the World Kashmir Awareness Forum, an advocacy group, said in a statement, while noting the Indian leaders claims that the 2019 abrogation of of Article 370 has enabled the aspirations of the Kashmiri people to find full expression.”
“Such sloganeering was also a distraction from the basic and fundamental right, pledged by both India and Pakistan and upheld by the world community — the right of self-determination given to the people of State of Jammu & Kashmir to decide the future status of its territory,” he said.
Elections, Fai said, must meet legitimate standards based on internationally-accepted and prescribed procedures for voter registration, election campaign and ballot secrecy. “It is a fact the election or referendum in Kashmir has to be conducted, monitored and supervised by an impartial and neutral agency, like the United Nations,” Fai said.
Unfortunately, he said, the elections in Indian Occupied Kashmir do not meet this threshold and were, therefore, illegitimate. As such the New Delhi-conducted polls in Kashmir would not lead to any talks, even as a first step, towards the resolution of Kashmir dispute.
“The world powers know that the Government of India’s election plans have nothing to do with building a majority consensus in Kashmir,” Fai said, adding, “They are designed to legitimize its illegitimate rule in the eyes of the international community. “