The current uprising against Indian occupation of Kashmir began in 1989, and in 1990 some Pakistani NGOs and political parties declared their solidarity with Kashmiri people in their just struggle and declared February 5 as Kashmir Solidarity Day. In view of the popularity of this declaration the then Benazir Bhutto government made it official and declared this a public holiday. In an article on the subject Indian daily The Hindu wrote on February 5, 2007 that “It is a day of no particular significance for Jammu and Kashmir but Pakistan will observe Monday, February 5, as Kashmir Solidarity Day, as it has been doing since 1990, shortly after the armed uprising in the State began.” This raises many questions: Why isn’t it significant for Jammu and Kashmir, but for Pakistan? Why do the Pakistanis feel so strongly for Kashmir? Is it really true that the day has no significance for the people of Kashmir? Why did they then start “the armed uprising in the State” as has been reported by the paper? We shall address these questions below.

Since then India, which is sometimes romantically called “the largest democracy on the planet” has flouted democratic principles and has been trying to incorporate and digest Kashmir within its territory. In the international front it has pursued “diplomacy” and tried to convince the world that it has a secular constitution ensuring equal right for all citizens, and secured veto power of the former Soviet Union so that the UN resolutions becomes ineffective. On the domestic front it has conducted rigged and stage-managed elections in order to justify its legitimacy over Kashmir – the elections that the people of Kashmir generally boycotted. In 1952 seventy three out of a total of 75 candidates in the state assembly were elected unopposed. The two seats where elections were conducted were located in Hindu majority Jammu area. In 1956 this so-called State Constituent Assembly defied all UN resolutions on the subject and adopted a resolution declaring Kashmir an integral part of India. India made another mockery of democracy by holding another election in Kashmir in 1957 in which 65 candidates of the ruling party got elected unopposed. Such election mockery continued creating frustration among people which turned many toward militarism some of which sporadically produced extremist actions.

The situation deteriorated significantly in 1989 when a spontaneous uprising occurred in Kashmir against Indian occupation. Describing the gravity of the situation and writing for the British paper Guardian in August 22, 2008 reputed author Arundhati Roy wrote: “After 18 years of administering a military occupation, the Indian government's worst nightmare has come true.” She highlighted the gravity of the situation and reported about years of torture, humiliation, rape and disappearance of many Kashmiries. She described how the territory had become a real battleground for Indian armed forces. In the same article Arundhati Roy talked the pro-Pakistani sentiments expressed by the people of Sri Nagar, the capital city of Indian-occupied Kashmir, on August 15, the Indian Independence Day: Why are the people expressing pro-Pakistani sentiment? This is because nobody else has expressed support or even sympathy for the oppressed people of Kashmir.

Kashmir has suffered not only from Indian democracy; it has suffered from American democracy too; and that too in the hands of champion of democracy and equality Barack Obama. As soon as he came to office President Obama appointed senior diplomat Richard Holbrooke to deal with Afghan-Pakistan conflict. Immediately the pro-Indian lobby in Washington intervened and got Kashmir deleted out of Holbrooke’s assignment. Should democratic principles be driven by lobby groups? Or democracy should ensure human dignity and individual right to self determination. President Obama has come out very strongly against the Supreme Court judgment about corporate funding of lobby groups: The President’s policies must also reflect his views of democracy and lobby groups, and must be applied universally.

Both the Kashmir dispute and situation in Afghanistan have placed Pakistan in the frontline of international conflicts. Extensive international pressure on the government of Pakistan and indiscriminate drone attacks in Pakistan with no positive gesture toward solving the Kashmir dispute will only create more frustration in Pakistan. This is bound to create more instability not only in Pakistan, but more likely in the entire region. That is why the cause of the Kashmiri people demands solidarity not only of Pakistanis but of all peace-loving people around the world. It is the moral responsibility of international community to demand that India fulfills its commitment that it made to the Kashmiri people when it accepted the UN Security Council resolution to hold internationally-supervised plebiscite to decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir.