Do Kashmir-centric leaders like democracy or autocracy?

Jagan Nath Dhar

30% of the world's population is living in democratic countries like India, 70% in nations like China and Pakistan, governed by autocrats.

Indonesia, the third largest Muslim country in the world, and India, the biggest democracy on our planet, have formulated programmes to strengthen and spread the message of religious freedom The two countries will use different fora for this purpose, including the G20, of which India has acquired presidentship.

The representatives of the Indian and Indonesian Majlis-e-Ulema took the initiative for the project Explaining the need for such efforts, the Indonesian Minister, Dr Mohammad Mehfood, who also functions as the national security advisor, said that he had learned the practice of religious freedom and good relationship from the Indian Prime Minister, Sh. Modi. He added that the scholars and intellectuals of Indonesia and India will now present Islam's peace-loving face to the world.

Responding to such sentiments of the Indonesian leader, Sh. Modi pointed out that India is having a dialogue with countries like the United Arab. Emirate and other Muslim nations. He added that Indonesia, like India, is a multi-cultural, multi-religious constitutional democracy The Indian National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, pointed out that Islam does not seek a monopoly of God. He quoted the Arabic saying rab-ul-alameen, the God of the whole universe. He explained that Prophet (P.B.H) did not work for the welfare of only the Muslims but for the whole world. In Arabi, this idea is known as rahmat-u-lilah aalameen. In 2015 Sh. Modi had expressed a good inter-religious desire when he said: I want Muslim students to have the Holy Quran in one hand and a computer in another.

G20, of which the two Asian countries want to take advantage in spreading the ideas of religious freedom, has a membership of countries which control the world's 80 per cent economy.

On the one hand, India and other peace- and democracy-loving, like-minded nations are trying to create understanding among different countries and religions. On the other, a majority of the human population is experiencing suppression from autocratic rulers. Thirty percent of the world's live in democracies like India and the U. K., while 70 per cent reside in nations governed by autocrats, like China, Iran and Pakistan. Demonstrations have been held in Iran for three months to allow women folk to wear the clothes of their choice. The protests started in September 2021, when 22-year-old activist Mahsa Amini was arrested for violating the Islamic dress code, as conceived by die-hard religionists. She was jailed, and she died in prison. Women have been the majority of the protesters, now, males, too, are joined in Iran and other countries.

When the Iran football team had to play a match against the U. K. team in the recent FIFA football competition, it refused to sing its national anthem. They said they were doing so to protest against the imposition of crude dress directives on Iranian women. In Iran, the protesting females are getting their hair cut to convey to the authorities that they should be given the rights available to women of civilised societies. Agencies estimate that 2,000 protesters have died during such demonstrations and in actions taken against these.

The present regime wants to place the progressive womenfolk in dark prisons, and these are trying to come from there. Such an atmosphere was absent when Shah Raza Pahlavi (also known as Arya Mehar because Aryans had been living in that country) was reigning that nation. In that period, the women there contributed a lot to that territory's progress.

A similar undemocratic atmosphere has been prevailing in China. A single party is ruling the country, and that party is controlled by a single person who thinks that he can commit no mistake and has managed to make himself the top, lone ruler for his lifetime, as Stalin did in the Soviet Union. The Covid virus originated in China. The government there kept it a secret. As a result, the virus spread because neither the population of that country nor the outside world became aware of its spread. Then the Government realised its mistake and took measures to curb the functioning of the commoner who had difficulty securing even basic necessities.

Ordinary people came out in the streets to oppose the harsh atmosphere they were made to face. The protests spread to different areas of the country. Such large- scale anti-government demonstrations were seen after a lapse of 41 years. The autocratic rulers removed some of the undesired restrictions it had imposed on the common person, but that was too late and too little. The protesters started demanding the removal of the suppressive measures and the end of the Communist Party rule and its head Xi Ping.

The Kashmir-centric leaders seriously need to consider whether it is good to be governed in a system in which care is taken for the welfare of the commoner, as is being done in J&K and the rest of India, or get deprived of civil rights as is done in autocracies.

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Courtesy:- Jagan Nath Dhar and December 2022, Koshur Samachar