It was a season of protests at the UN summit last week. And Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee wasnt spared, either. The clamouring brigade was led by a clutch of Pakistanis and Kashmiris, who raised the Kashmir issue.
The person who led one of the protest demonstrations the day the PM delivered his speech at the UN was none other than chairman of the Kashmiri American Council Ghulam Nabi Fai. The number of demonstrators rarely crossed double figures, but ubiquitous TV cameras could have you believe that a revolution was around the corner. Fai lashed out, "The dispute over Kashmir is not soluble through peaceful procedures. India is gradually recognising that Kashmir is its Vietnam, our Kashmir is placed under unwanted and abhorrent military occupation."
Usually, those protesting send memorandum to the Secretary Generals office. Little is heard about it subsequently. UN diplomats say the Kashmir issue could well be regarded as a local or regional issue, on par with those of the Basque separatists.
On that day, there were other protests as well. For instance, the National Association of Asian Indian Christians organised a prayer outside the UN, protesting the attacks on Christian missionaries in India. Later, they were joined by the activists of what is known as the Forum of Indian Leftists, North America, who protested the presence of the vhp at the earlier World Conference of Religions.
There was also a petition that was signed by people from diverse backgrounds, ranging from Father Joseph Mangalam, professor of theology at Gujarats Vidya Deep, to Delhi-based sahmat to Sputinik Kalambi, a Paris-#based journalist. It declared a veritable war on Indias ruling party. "The bjp is just over 20 years old and is the parliamentary front for the right-wing, neo-fascist Hindutva movement. Vajpayee is one of the Hindutva movements chief ideologues," the petition stated. It also said the bjp demolished the Babri Masjid and urged the UN to take to task Vajpayee for what it described as a continuous hate campaign against Indias minorities.
The day Vajpayee spoke at the vhp-sponsored meeting, Kashmiri activists protested saying that Kashmiris were threatened with decimation and that the Indian army should leave the Valley forthwith. Interestingly, the protesters include a lone Save the Cow activist who accused the Indian government of not doing enough to protect the cow. A senior bjp leader in the PMs entourage asked indignantly: "Have you asked these fellows who gives them the money to come to New York to protest?" In the deep ideological divide, there is rarely any meeting ground.
