G20 Kashmir Meeting: Modi's PR Ploy Backfires!

[RiazHaq]

G20 Kashmir Meeting: Modi's PR Ploy Backfires!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign to show normalcy in the Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir has backfired. Three member ...

www.southasiainvestor.com

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign to show normalcy in the Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir has backfired. Three member countries of the G20 boycotted the tourism event in Srinagar. The rest of them sent local embassy staff to attend. The event also drew negative worldwide media coverage of the brutality of India's "settler colonialism" in the disputed territory. It elicited strong condemnation from the United Nations. Prior to the event, India’s tourism secretary, Arvind Singh had promised that the meeting will not only “showcase (Kashmir’s) potential for tourism” but also “signal globally the restoration of stability and normalcy in the region.” The Modi government failed to achieve both of these objectives.

G20 Meeting in Indian Military Occupied Kashmir

Meeting Boycott:

China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey did not attend the G20 event in Srinagar. Rest of the G20 members sent diplomats posted in New Delhi to attend it. It's not unusual for foreign diplomats to visit disputed territories such as Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, Donald Blome, US Ambassador to Pakistan, visited what he called "Azad Jammu and Kashmir". The G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Kashmir drew condemnation from China and the United Nations.

“China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory. We will not attend such meetings,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press briefing on May 19 in Beijing.

Fernand de Varennes, U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues, criticized the meeting, saying that by hosting the session in Kashmir, “India is seeking to normalize what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalizing a G20 meeting and portray an international 'seal of approval’.”

The UN representative warned the G20 of “unwittingly providing a veneer of support to a facade of normalcy at a time when massive human rights violations, illegal and arbitrary arrests, political persecutions, restrictions and even suppression of free media and human rights defenders continue to escalate.”

Heavy Indian Security Presence at Dal Lake For G20 in Kashmir. Source: Washington Post

International Media Coverage:

The global media coverage of the G20 meeting in Kashmir has largely been negative. It has highlighted the brutal occupation of the region by the Indian military.

A piece in The Conversation accused India of "using the G20 summit to further its settler-colonial ambitions in Kashmir". It pointed out that the "route to Gulmarg (G20 event location) is lined with barbed wire. Armed soldiers keep watch from fortified bunkers". The Conversation piece offers the following advice to anyone visiting Indian Occupied Kashmir:

"Those visiting (Indian Occupied) Kashmir must first learn about the decolonial history of the region, one that honors Kashmiri calls for self-determination and sovereignty. They must follow the principle of do no harm by not visiting tourist sites or using tour operators run by Indian authorities. They should support local Kashmiri-run businesses as much as possible. There is no simple resolution for tourism on occupied lands. Tourism amid settler-colonialism manifests in exploitation, dispossession, commodification and other injustices and inequities. The goal of ethical travel is not immediate perfection or self-exoneration. It is an invitation to think about our own actions and complicity".

A story in "The Guardian" noted that the G20 Kashmir meeting "required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport". It added: "India’s presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019".

Voice of America reported that the "security moved into the background to give a sense of normalcy amid reports of mass detentions" as the event drew closer.

Modi's Blunders:

Prime Minister Modi's PR campaign has clearly backfired. His government's actions have failed to project any sense of normalcy in the disputed region. In fact, Mr. Modi's blunders have helped internationalize the issue of Kashmir on the world stage. They have drawn China further into the Kashmir dispute, particularly in the Ladakh region where the Chinese troops have taken large chunks of what India claims as its territory.

In an Op Ed for the Deccan Herald, Indian Journalist Bharat Bhushan has accused Modi government of "overplaying its hand in organizing a G20 event in Srinagar". He has summed up the fallout from the G20 Kashmir Meeting failure as follows:

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming State visit to the United States makes this rebuff on J&K by the international community, especially significant. What might have been ignored by India and perhaps down-played, at least publicly by the US, in the build-up to the Modi-Biden summit, will now become an additional irritant in the bilateral relationship. Did the Modi government bait fate by overplaying its hand in organizing a G20 event in Srinagar?"

Here's India's JNU Professor speaking about illegal Indian occupation of Kashmir, Manipur and Nagaland:

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan's Bilawal Bhutto Lashes Out at India's Jaishankar

India: A Paper Elephant?

India-Pakistan Nuclear Arms Race

Kashmir: 700,000 Indian Soldiers vs 7 Million Kashmiris

Israeli Settler Colonialism

India Promotes Half Truths About UNSC Kashmir Resolutions

Pakistan-China-Russia Vs India-Japan-US

Total, Extended Lockdown in Indian Occupied Kashmir

What is India Hiding From UN Human Rights Team?

Indian JNU Professor on Illegal Indian Occupation of Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland

Riaz Haq Youtube Channel

VPOS Youtube Channel

G20 Kashmir Meeting: Modi's PR Ploy Backfires!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign to show normalcy in the Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir has backfired. Three member ...

www.southasiainvestor.com

 

[protean]

Reads like a cope.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

Reads like a cope.

His entire blog is, self jerking and showing the other side as irrelevant lol.

 

[kingQamaR]

even the likes of Egypt last people I would thought would do right by Pakistan did it. And Kept away. Rest of the big power like the article correctly reported did their bare minimum sent embassy staff normal past visits seen has not to cross any lines. The G20 in india has been a failure boycotted by China the next time U.K. and USA will thing twice putting their indian boy forward as an alternative.

 

[That Guy]

Reads like a cope.

Sending the bare minimum to what is essentially a major important meeting (practically mandatory) is apparently a good thing, according to your logic.

This G-20 meet was set to fail as soon as it was announced. If it was held in say Dehli, you would have probably had world leaders attend. No one would have boycotted either.

 

[Menace2Society]

If Pakistan wasn't such a weak p***y it would have taken back its territory. Kashmir is Pakistan.

 

[mangochutney]

Mon 22 May 2023 12.53 BST

India’s presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019.
The meeting, a tourism working group attended by about 60 delegates from most G20 countries taking place from Monday to Wednesday, required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport.
In 2019 the Indian government stripped the disputed Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy and split it into two federal territories in an attempt to integrate it fully into India.

Indian authorities hoped the meeting would show that the controversial changes have brought “peace and prosperity” to the region and that it is a safe place for tourists.
India’s elite National Security Guard, including its counter-drone unit and marine commandos, were helping police and paramilitary forces to secure the event venues.
China has said it will not attend, citing its firm opposition “to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory”. In April, Pakistan, which also lays claim to Kashmir but is not a G20 member, described the meeting as irresponsible. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Indonesia were also expected to stay away.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed India had turned the region into the equivalent of the Guantánamo Bay prison simply to hold a meeting on tourism. She also accused the Bharatiya Janata party, the party of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, of hijacking the G20 for its promotional purposes.
Last week Fernand de Varennes, the UN’s special rapporteur on minority issues, issued a statement saying the G20 was “unwittingly providing a veneer of support to a facade of normalcy” when human rights violations, political persecution and illegal arrests were escalating in Kashmir.
He said the meeting risked normalising what some have described as a military occupation. The statement was criticised as baseless by India’s permanent mission at the UN in Geneva. It was India’s prerogative to hold G20 meetings in any part of the country, the mission said.

India divided the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 to create two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Ladakh is a disputed frontier region along the line of actual control between India and China, and both countries claim parts of it.
The chief coordinator for India’s G20 presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, said on Sunday: “We have the highest representation from foreign delegations for the tourism working group meeting in Srinagar, than we have had in the previous working group meetings.
“Our experience is that in any working group meeting, to get such a large turnout of delegates not only from G20 countries but also from international organisations that are part of the G20 is an incredible process. If you have to do a working group on tourism in India, we have to do it in Srinagar. There is no option.”

Britain’s high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, said UK representatives would be attending the meeting. At a meeting between Modi and Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, at the G7 in Hiroshima, the two sides discussed progress on reaching a free trade deal. India remains angry at what it regards as a lax UK police reaction to an attack on the Indian high commission in Londonon 19 March by pro-Khalistan extremists. Security has been stepped up outside the commission.
The presidency of the G20 is rotated between members each year and the Indian presidency was always likely to prove controversial as India has close trading links with Russia and the Modi administration is keen to protect Russia from criticism by western members of the G20 over Ukraine. Kyiv has asked to attend a summit in September but the Indian government is arguing Ukraine is not relevant to the state of the world economy – the central purpose of the G20 – or to its chosen key agenda items of inclusive growth, debt restructuring and climate finance.
Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 summit staged by Indonesia last year but instead sent his veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

Sending the bare minimum to what is essentially a major important meeting (practically mandatory) is apparently a good thing, according to your logic.

It was a minor tourism related meeting not some major important meeting.

This G-20 meet was set to fail as soon as it was announced. If it was held in say Dehli, you would have probably had world leaders attend. No one would have boycotted either.

It will still be held in Delhi lmao
Small meetings will be held everywhere in India, Srinagar being no exception.


You too can organise a meeting in Mirpur/Muzaffarabad when its your turn to host G20 summit. Oh wait...

 

[Path-Finder]

it was mega duper success. shri moohdhi ji's win.

 

[That Guy]

It was a minor tourism related meeting not some major important meeting.

It will still be held in Delhi lmao
Small meetings will be held everywhere in India, Srinagar being no exception.


You too can organise a meeting in Mirpur/Muzaffarabad when its your turn to host G20 summit. Oh wait...

It's the fucking G-20, not your average trade meet.

The very symbolism is more important than the meet itself.

You'll said Pakistan is coping, but honestly it's yall who are coping at this failure.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

It's the fucking G-20, not your average trade meet.

The very symbolism is more important than the meet itself.

You'll said Pakistan is coping, but honestly it's yall who are coping at this failure.

What kind of a failure are we talking here? It was a small meeting related to tourism, even the countries which 'boycotted' sent their delegates in some form or the other.


It was expected that attendance would not be 100% but most countries still participated.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1661419049136562176

 

[That Guy]

What kind of a failure are we talking here? It was a small meeting related to tourism, even the countries which 'boycotted' sent their delegates in some form or the other.


It was expected that attendance would not be 100% but most countries still participated.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1661419049136562176

So why hold it in Kashmir?

Listen, you can try and play this games of pretend-ignorance all you want, we all know what's happening. You're not protecting your nation by lying through your teeth here, because it's an internet forum and no one important cares what you think.

We both know the symbolism, we both know what is going on, the only difference is that you're lying about it and I'm not.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

So why hold it in Kashmir?

Listen, you can try and play this games of pretend-ignorance all you want, we all know what's happening. You're not protecting your nation by lying through your teeth here, because it's an internet forum and no one important cares what you think.

We both know the symbolism, we both know what is going on, the only difference is that you're lying about it and I'm not.

The reality is that India has shown that it can hold diplomatic events in the valley without any pressure. G20 meetings are being held all across the country and it sent the message that Srinagar is in India.

For you it might be a colossal failure since it isn't for us. Same goes for you, no one important cares for what you think or how you defend your stance.

We'll see how many countries participate if a meeting is held in Mirpur or Muzaffarabad, try hosting the crown princes of gulf states in Mirpur.

 

[kingQamaR]

What kind of a failure are we talking here? It was a small meeting related to tourism, even the countries which 'boycotted' sent their delegates in some form or the other.


It was expected that attendance would not be 100% but most countries still participated.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1661419049136562176

G20 was a failure you can dress it up as much you want on here we are not bothered by it . When it came down to your central piece on Kashmiris it went down like a lead balloon. IOK Kashmiri cannot be marketed by any one least by you Indians occupation forces. Learn from Trump bumbling he couldn’t sell Jerusalem to rest of the world as Israel’s capital. You certainly ain’t going come close to usa muscle in trying changing places right full owners.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

G20 was a failure you can dress it up as much you want on here we are not bothered by it . When it came down to your central piece on Kashmiris it went down like a lead balloon. IOK Kashmiri cannot be marketed by any one least by you Indians occupation forces. Learn from Trump bumbling he couldn’t sell Jerusalem to rest of the world as Israel’s capital. You certainly ain’t going come close to usa muscle in trying changing places right full owners.

Who is USA to tell whats Israel, whats not? Its upto Israel how it deals with it. We too aren't bothered by the rants coming from the other side. G20 meet in Srinagar happened successfully and thats how it is. You can have your own opinions.