The reasons for #August5 being called a #BlackDay for #Kashmir are many, more so, trust broken, turbulences and financial crashes.
This move actually broke a trust where Article 370 and 35A can only be revoked with the consent of the Kashmiri people which never happened. Let us look at the reasons why Kashmiris consider August 5th a Black Day.
How was Article 370 Constituted?
In 1820 the Sikh Empire, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir which was its own little country. After the 1846 Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War with the acquisition of Kashmir from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir.
The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until the Partition of India in 1947, when the former princely state of the British Indian Empire became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and China.
Due to the complex delicate circumstances, Ayyangar under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru rose as the chief drafter of Article 370 which granted local autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir which was administered by India as a state from 1954 to 31 October 2019, and Article 370 granted Jammu and Kashmir the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.
Why Did Removal of Article 370 Cause Kashmiris to Call it Black Day?
This step of removing Article 370 was done without Jammu and Kashmir’s approval and was deemed was illegal, immoral and fascist in nature and against the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
It was considered a violation of the solemn commitment given by India at the time of partition that the normal laws of the country would not apply to the valley and a plebiscite will be held to ascertain the will of the people. The vote was never conducted and the BJP government rescinded a signed and sealed promise to Jammu and Kashmir.
By abolishing Article 370, the people of Jammu and Kashmir lost the autonomy they enjoyed in managing their provincial affairs. The BJP government it is said took away the right of 8 million people to have no say in deciding their future.
The annulment of the Article erased the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and bifurcated the Muslim-majority state into two union territories with Buddhist-majority Ladakh getting separated from Jammu and Kashmir.
Just before the revocation of Article 370, the BJP government promised they would not do it, and right before that, Kashmir started to become sealed along with a mysterious influx of Army forces. After this, Kashmir became the most heavily militarized zone in the world.
This crackdown was imposed by cutting off Jammu and Kashmir from the rest of the world both physically and virtually, cutting phone lines and the Internet; detaining top political leaders; mass imprisonment; and imposition of an indefinite curfew. A day prior to the abrogation of Article 370, a long Internet shutdown transpired across the valley. This was the 51 st internet shutdown of the year in the region.
With the Internet and phone communication blockade, the United Nations Human Rights Council has termed the communication clampdown as a form of collective punishment not permissible under international law which recognizes people’s right to exercise their freedom of opinion and expression, a fundamental human right (Article 19) by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
India was among the signatories when UDHR was put to vote in 1948. Failing to abide by the Declaration, which does not have its own legally binding obligations, is a source of moral and political failure for any country.
After August 5, 2019, it is reported that more than 500 Kashmiri youth have been martyred and tens of thousands arrested and put in jail without trial. Hundreds of political leaders and activists, including former Indian-administrated Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti andJ&K Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Ravinder Sharma.
According to reports in the world media, more than 4000 Kashmiris were imprisoned including political leaders, elected representatives, lawyers, activists, businessmen and students in the days leading to August 5 and afterwards.
The majority of the detainees are kept under a controversial J&K Public Safety Act, which allows authorities to book a person without a charge or trial for up to two years. Article 9 of both UDHR and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) does not allow arbitrary detention. The ICCPR, which was signed in December 1966 and entered into force in March 1976, was approved by India in April 1979.
Three years after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 370 and 35A, Kashmir was still under siege with over 700,000 Army troops and Kashmir is now the most militarized region in the world. Every few days, someone is shot dead.
International media has been banned from covering events in Kashmir while Amnesty International which has highlighted the abuse of human rights in the valley has been asked to leave India.
In all this, suicides and depression triggered, jobs were lost while businesses plunged, and tourism crashed in Kashmir. Things are slowly dragging along a meandering pathway and it is very hard for Kashmir to come back to normal. There are still no industries or growth or jobs in Kashmir, nothing is happening as was promised which is why August 5th is called a Black Day for Kashmiris.