Political Activities Resume In Kashmir After Three Years

After a hiatus of more than three years, political activities are back in Kashmir. After the government pressed its election machinery into action, Kashmir-based unionist political parties resumed their activities. Even though the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not released dates for the election to Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the election preparations are underway.

Inclusion of Non-local Voters in Kashmir’s Election

The ECI has begun the revision of electoral rolls and the process is expected to be completed by the end of October this year.

The chief electoral officer of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Hirdesh Kumar had last month informed that non-locals who are staying temporarily in Jammu and Kashmir can also register as voters. Non-locals who are staying in for the purpose of education, business, employment, and labour are eligible for voting in J&K assembly elections. Armed forces personnel, stationed at peace stations in Kashmir are also eligible to vote.

The announcement by the chief electoral officer has created a buzz in J&K Union Territory. Kashmir-based regional parties have called the new voters “imported” voters of the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indian Muslims

Controversial Delimitation Exercise in Kashmir

Earlier, the BJP-led central government had carried out the process of delimitation in J&K. The delimitation commission created seven new constituencies. Further, it also changed boundaries of several constituencies.

Kashmir-based politicians criticised the exercise as the delimitation commission gave Hindu-majority Jammu region a disproportionate number of seats. The act was aimed at bringing Jammu’s electoral representation to par with Muslim -the majority Kashmir region. The delimitation exercise is carried out so that there is an equal number of voters in all constituencies. However, this was not the case in the recently held delimitation in J&K.

The main aim of the delimitation exercise in J&K was to make sure that the number of Muslim and Hindu legislative (or Kashmir and Jammu-based) members in J&K’s assembly is almost equal.

Political Activities Resume in Kashmir

After senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the Congress party and announced to launch of a new party, political activities resumed in J&K. Several Jammu, as well as Kashmir-based senior political leaders, joined Azad.

Azad has held several rallies in Kashmir as well as in Jammu. He has not formally launched his party but has announced that he will launch it in the coming days. Since several senior politicians have joined Azad, his party will upset electoral equations for Kashmir-based parties.

BJP in Election Mode

Meanwhile, BJP is also in election mode. The president of India recently nominated a prominent Gujjar Muslim leader, Ghulam Ali Khatana, to the Upper House of the parliament. The BJP has made this move to woo the tribal community of Gujjar and Bakerwals. The tribal community forms the third largest ethnic group in J&K, after Kashmiri Muslims and Dogras.

The announcement of the revival of Village Defence Committees (now known as VDGs) by the central government has also come just before the elections. People in Jammu villages where VDGs are present will keep this into consideration while voting.

Kashmir-based Parties Missing from Campaign

What is surprising is that Kashmir’s two old parties- National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) seem to be missing from the campaign. These two parties have not been in news recently. The only announcements coming from them are through their social media channels.

Meanwhile, Altaf Bukhari’s recently formed party, Apni party, has been campaigning for some time now. The party has been calling for early elections ever since its launch. It has also promised to bring in several meaningful schemes for the people of J&K.

The Dilemma for Kashmir-based Parties

This election in J&K is going to be different. The discourse and the narrative in Kashmir Issue have changed. Kashmir-based parties will need to adopt a new vocabulary. Soft separatism, which many Kashmir-based parties used to employ in past election campaigns will not be acceptable this time. It will neither be acceptable to the central government nor will the people of Kashmir buy it.

One thing is sure, Kashmir-based parties will heavily rely on the promises of the restoration of statehood. Some parties, including NC and PDP, will go a step further to call for the restoration of autonomy or Article 370.

However, people will not buy the campaign around Article 370 restoration. As Azad has also made it clear that he will not focus on the restoration of Article 370. People also know that restoration of autonomy is impossible now.

No Boycott Campaigns

This election will also be different in the sense that there will be no boycott calls. Most of the senior separatist leaders died while others are in jail. Further, the India government has banned all separatist-leaning organisations.

With new players, new constituencies, new voters and new discourse, the J&K Legislative Assembly elections are going to be interesting.

Rectifying Nuclear Imbalance With Israel Should Be A Strategic Priority For Egypt, SA And Turkey

Thanks to America’s dark embrace of Israeli fascism and Lebensraum policies, the Israeli nuclear arsenal continues to represent an existential strategic nightmare to hundreds of millions of Muslims in the Middle East and beyond. This is why responsible Muslim leaderships must explore every conceivable option to deliver our people from this gargantuan peril.

Israeli officials, addicted to bamboozling gullible Western media by saying Israel wouldn’t be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East, would not spell out the real goals of possessing at least 90 nuclear warheads. It is certainly not to prevent a recurrence of the Holocaust or as an ultimate insurance policy against a prospective destruction of Jews by an extremely powerful enemy.

Sinister Goals

There are several sinister goals Israel is trying to achieve or has already achieved by virtue of possessing a sizeable nuclear arsenal, along with the required delivery systems. These goals include the following:

1. Achieving perpetual strategic superiority over the entire Arab world as well as regional non-Arab Muslim countries such as Turkey and Iran. Which amounts to forcing the Arab-Muslim Middle East into a strategic inferiority vis-à-vis the apartheid Jewish state.

2-Fortifying the Zionist scheme by adopting unprecedented Draconian measures against Palestinians in Israel itself and the Occupied Territories (already over 50%  of the total population). 

Such exceptionally harsh measures might involve, inter alia, a partial genocide,  carried out under the guise of a disingenuous civil war, concocted by the Zionist leadership as a pretext, which would trigger a massive flight by Palestinians similar to the Syrian or Ukrainian scenarios.

This is not a fantastic scenario as some observers might be tempted to think. Israel has already decapitated all remaining possibilities for the establishment of an independent and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.

Moreover, the US seems either utterly unable or unwilling or both, to force a recalcitrant Israel to dismantle or abandon its illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Hence, Israel might eventually reach the conclusion that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, even one carrying the hallmarks of a real genocide, is the only solution for the worsening demographic crisis facing the Jewish state.

A few years ago, Jewish settler leaders expressed their hope that Palestinians would flee without a lot of bloodshed!

“But in case they don’t, we will have to do the job by hook or crook.”

This writer heard one settler from the settlement of Kiryat Arba near al-Khalil saying“ I wouldn’t mind killing a few thousand Palestinians if that would trigger the departure of a million or 2 million Arabs.”

Menachem Begin; a former terrorist Prime Minister of Israel, in his Book, the “Revolt,” described the expulsion of the bulk of Palestinians following major Jewish massacres of Palestinian villagers in 1948, such as Dir Yasin, as a miraculous breakthrough since Israel would not have been created without it.  Hence, present Zionist leaders pray that the “miracle” be repeated and millions of Palestinians would leave, admitting though that “no feat like this would be bloodless.”  

The reason I specifically mentioned Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey has to do with Israel’s Talmudic ambitions to occupy large chunks of these countries “when the opportunity arises.”

According to Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of Three Thousand years” by Israel Shahak, Israel’s Talmudic borders are as follows: “In the south, all the Sinai Peninsula and a part of northern Egypt up to the environs of Cairo; in the East, all of Jordan a large chunk of Saudi Arabia, all of Kuwait, and a large part of Iraq up to the Euphrates; in the north, all of Lebanon, all of Syria and a large part of southern Turkey up to Lake Van, and in the West, Cyprus.”

These ambitions are not abstract or far-fetched notions that belong to the realm of the impossible as far as powerful Talmudic circles are concerned.

According to Shahak, “an enormous body of research and learned discussion, based on these borders, embodied in atlases, books, articles and more popular forms of propaganda is being published in Israel.

What can be done to rectify this unbearable anomaly?

I think treating this matter begins with renewing and reinforcing our realization that this strategic aberration cannot be allowed to linger forever since its continuation is tantamount to perpetuating and consolidating Jewish hegemony and supremacy over one-third of the world’s Muslims. 

Yes, we do realize that without a submissively pliant America, Israel is a little more than a Kosher idle wind. But for the bulk of the Zionist clique effectively controlling the American government, Israel must always come first, even before America itself.

I don’t believe in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and I absolutely despise the silly antics of anti-Semites, past and present. Nonetheless, we as Muslims must have enough rectitude and moral honesty to call the spade a spade.

Moreover, we shouldn’t go too far by indulging in infinite absurdity like babbling about defeating “American imperialism!” as a prelude to defeating Israel. In fact, destiny and history are evidently more able to defeat America.  True, America is not a lame duck yet, but it is no longer the omnipotent superpower it once was as we have seen the limitations of its powers ever since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis.

We certainly are not seeking to achieve the Mutual Assured Destruction equation with America. We, too, have to be aware of our own limitations. Nuclear Power 

However, in a world where brutal force has the loudest voice, we can’t be like helpless orphans awaiting rescue from a bunch of thieves, rapists and child killers. After all who will help us if we don’t help ourselves?

I am not alluding to the little men reclining in Israel’s lap!

“When I say “We,” I am not thinking of this Sheikh, or that king or Emir. These mentally-retarded “little men” are more than just part of the problem. They are the problem itself. They are a huge burden upon themselves and their peoples as the strategic preoccupation of most of them doesn’t really exceed a woman’s underwear. They are a cancer upon the collective conscience of the Muslim Umma.

In the Muslim world, there are success stories and the overall strategic outlook is not that gloomy.  Nonetheless, I believe a close nuclear cooperation between certain Muslim countries must be ensured and cemented.

It is really shameful and quite embarrassing that a country such as Egypt, with a population of over a hundred million people, remains without a nuclear deterrent. But Egypt has only itself to blame.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, a country whose masses cannot freely elect their rulers cannot really be independent and truly sovereign.

But we are talking about contemptible rulers who value the “legitimacy” that comes from the powerful Jewish lobby in America more than that which comes from their own peoples’ acceptance of them.

Unfortunately, this is the case in virtually all Arab countries from Manama to Casablanca. We all know that rectifying the nuclear imbalance with Israel is a paramount duty, though an exceptionally arduous task.

However, if a duty cannot be carried out unless certain requirements are secured, securing these requirements becomes a paramount duty itself.  I can only say that much about this extremely sensitive subject.

I do care about my Umma, which ought to be one Umma, not 55 states, Sheikhdoms and fiefdoms with conflicting loyalties, depending on the mood of their mostly unelected ignorant leaders.

A few weeks ago, I was asked about my happiest day in life and my sadist. The happiest day was when Pakistan, a country I love but have never been to, succeeded in detonating its first nuclear device. And the Sadist day was when Israel’s man in Egypt, Abdul Fattah Sissi, in a bloody coup backed by Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE, and, of course, the US, toppled Professor Muhammed Mursi, the first ever and last democratically-elected president in Egypt’s 7000-year-history.

Pakistan Flood Puts Climate Injustice In The Spotlight: The Age Of Catastrophe

The fight against climate injustice: About one-third of Pakistan is currently underwater from floods. With over 1500 deaths, thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands displaced, the catastrophe unraveling is not something new.

From Uganda to Pakistan, extreme climate events are devastating the lives of millions of already vulnerable populations. Yet, while the low-income nations continue to suffer, wealthy countries watch in silence.

This is Mzemo’s The Age of Catastrophe and here’s how the Pakistan flood is highlighting the global climate injustice:

Pakistan’s Catastrophic Floods

Collapsed villages, millions displaced, and hundreds dead— the monsoon season this year is unraveling in havoc. Across Pakistan, flooding induced by torrential rain (five to seven times the typical rain) that started in July and peaked in August has left millions homeless.

The devastation started with an extreme heatwave melting down snow from over Himalayan 7000 glaciers. Followed by heavy rainfall, causing massive flooding in mid-July, compounded by the melting glacier rushing downwards from the mountain.

Since June, Pakistan has recorded over 15,000 fatalities and over 13,000 injuries. The aftermath of the flood will bring increased diseases, poverty, hunger, and massive rebuilding costs. Especially now when over a million houses are damaged or destroyed. Early estimates show the damage to cost over $30 billion.

“This whole year we have borne the humanitarian payload of other people’s carbon-rich lifestyles,”

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s federal minister for climate change

Soon scientists will find the root cause of the devastating floods and long-term climate change is definitely an undeniable reason. However, when it comes to allocating responsibilities for the climate-attributable costs, the true culprits will likely back off.

And Pakistan is not the only one. Countries around the globe are suffering from similar cases of climate injustice.

Countries Most Vulnerable to Climate Injustice

2022 has been a devastating year for the human-induced climate crisis. From drought in the Horn of Africa to mega-fires and typhoons in the US, the world is amidst climate change catastrophes.

Human Rights on the Brink of Tragedy Due to a Severe Drought in the Horn of Africa

Even though the developing countries have done the least to contribute, they are at the forefront of climate catastrophe. Heatwaves and droughts have become unbearably frequent in Africa.

Then there are storms—the warmer the air, the stronger winds and rain across the tropics. And, by 2050, the sea level will have risen so high that floods that used to hit once in a century will hit various coastal cities every year.

The inequality of climate change comes together hardest in these vulnerable countries. Even though these people have barely contributed to global warming, they are amongst the most susceptible.

But, here’s the truth: building a climate-change resilient economy is expensive, and countries like Madagascar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Somalia don’t have enough funds.

These heart-wrenching cases are a few of the millions highlighting the sheer inadequacy of global superpowers in raising sufficient funding and the climate injustice at the heart of it all.

Finding the Culprits

The current carbon-emitting hotspots, including China, India, and Brazil, look less guilty when you realize that they have only recently become part of the problem. Whereas, the real culprits are not ready to accept how unjust climate changes are.

The inequalities that have brought one-third of Pakistan underwater are not discussed enough. In addition, the world’s most significant carbon emitters have consistently failed to support climate change-induced loss and damage measures while also falling short on mitigation and adaptation efforts while committing to lessen the harm caused to the most vulnerable countries. Research conducted in 2020 found that the Global North has emitted about 92% of the CO2 that has pushed the planet to today’s catastrophe. Whereas Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa together account for less than 8% of the emission.

Countries are also overspending their carbon budgets. According to Oxfam International, the wealthiest 1% produces twice as much as the poorest 50%. The two countries most responsible for the climate crisis, China and the United States, aren’t discussing climate solutions.

But, the Pakistan flood has put climate injustice in the spotlight once again. A climate justice movement planned for street protests and meetings on September 9, 2022, in a number of nations across the world to show support for Pakistan’s flood victims.

It’s high time to realize that what’s happening to Pakistan will continue to repeat elsewhere. International cooperation is necessary to decent one another and put an end to climate crime.

Centuries-Old Injustice with a New Face

Be it climate change, slavery, or colonialism, and the rich and powerful nations are quick to dismiss their historical responsibility. 

Yes, every country must decarbonize its energy system and focus more on sustainability. But, the rich and powerful countries frequently dismiss their historical responsibility, whether for colonialism, slavery, or climate change. All countries must decarbonize their energy systems and manage their land and ecosystems appropriately and sustainably.

However, the poor world will not forget the part that affluent nations played in causing today’s global climate crises. As the cost of climate-related losses rises, so will global calls for climate justice.