"If They Can Do It...", Indian Counsel General Asks For Israel Model In Kashmir

In a viral video shared by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, India’s counsel general in New York vouched for Israeli model to be implemented in Indian administered Kashmir to counter opposing forces.

Counsel general Sandeep Chakravorty made the controversial remarks in an hour-long video in which he was interacting to Kashmiri Pandit diaspora in the US.

“I don’t know why we don’t follow it(Israel model). It has happened in the Middle East. If the Israeli people can do it, we can also do it,” he said, adding that the current Indian leadership is “determined” to do so.

The remarks come at a time when the Government of India officially condemned Israel’s aggressive approach to tackle and contain Palestinian refugees; placing restrictions on their movement, and building Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

The remarks made by the counsel general spurned into an international incident with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan vehemently criticized top diplomat’s comment and alleged that it reflects fascist mindset.

Counsel general advocated cultivating Hindu culture in the Muslim majority valley as he spoke of the need for resettling Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. He also mentioned that the forced exodus from the Kashmir Valley in 1990 following the onset of the insurgency, there is widely acknowledged as one of the great injustices of independent India.

Chakravorty further added that “Kashmiri culture is Indian culture is Hindu culture… None of us can imagine an India without Kashmir,” he said, to claps from the audience.

India had “made a strategic blunder of thinking that all of us think like us,” he added, referring to a previous speaker who had mentioned that India is a tolerant country and different religions coexist together.

“We should start thinking like others. [That is] the only way we can beat them at their game… and that thinking is coming,” he added.

“We have never used our strength as a majority community…. we have never [made] use of our Hindu culture… ancient civilisation in diplomacy. Now that we are using it, people are having problems,” he added as the crowd cheered.

So far, the Ministry of External Affairs has not officially responded to the controversy.

The rampant use of pellet guns in the Valley to disperse crowd was the idea taken by Israel. India still gets its pellets to be used against Kashmiris from the Jewish country.

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