Modi’s visit to Srinagar Saturday brings to mind an event where in September 2006 the British artist Banksy gave special meaning to the phrase “elephant in the room” in a Los Angeles exhibit called Barely Legal. It’s theme was global poverty. As writer Gary Martin says, “By painting the elephant in the same bold pattern as the room’s wallpaper, Banksy emphasized the phrase’s meaning, by both making the elephant even more obvious and by giving those who chose to ignore it (like the woman in the tableau) an opportunity to pretend that it had blended into the wallpaper background.“

Modi’s elephant in the room was depicted in the same way in Srinagar, the Capitol City of Kashmir this past weekend, where we had the same artificial set re-enacted. The attempt to disguise the true problem of Kashmir by locking up the voices and spirit of resistance to Indian oppression did not make it go away nor did it recede into the wallpaper. The dispute over the sovereignty of the land and people of Kashmir cannot be hidden by all the cosmetics that $12 billion can purchase.

Baltimore, Maryland. May 31, 2016. “The world powers have voiced not a syllable of reproach to India for its human rights violations in Kashmir. Their tacit message to India’s leaders: your economic attractiveness and hegemony in South Asia exculpate your human rights atrocities in Kashmir. Does that reflect a profile in courage?” this was stated by Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness during the 41st Annual Convention of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

Dr. Fai was speaking in the panel, entitled, “Muslims Around The World Series” on the subject of Kashmir. Other speakers included Dr. Nikibur Rahman, son of Motiur Rahman Nizami who was executed in Bangladesh on May 11, 2016 through a trial procedure that international human rights groups, including ‘Amnesty International’ have condemned as deeply flawed. ‘The Arab Spring: 6 Years later’ was presented by Dr. Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, former Member of Parliament of Egypt.

New York. December 11, 2015. Twelfth International Kashmir Peace Conference, entitled, “Beyond the Blame Game: Finding Common Grounds for Peace and Justice in Kashmir,” organized by International Educational Development (IED) at the Church Center of the United Nations, New York, attended among others by the academics, researchers, the delegates from various United Nations Missions, representatives of the United Nations NGO’s, social and civil rights activists, political analysts and prominent Americans of South Asian origin, began with the key-note speech delivered by Hon. Ramsey Clark, 66th Attorney General of the United States.

Washington, D.C. March 31, 2016. An impressive peaceful demonstration was held during Nuclear Security Summit in front of the Washington D.C. Convention Center wherein hundreds of participants, who came from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington itself were carrying the placards with the message, “ Kashmir: Nuclear flashpoint”; “Time to resolve the Kashmir dispute is now”; “Freedom for all: Freedom for Kashmir”; “Kashmiris demand right of self-determination”; “India: Stop human rights violations in Kashmir.” “Road to Kabul Runs Through Kashmir.”

The participants highlighted that Kashmir was at the brink of a potential nuclear holocaust, and this holocaust was occurring because the root cause of independence and freedom for Kashmir had not been adequately addressed. Kashmir has ignited two wars between the estranged South Asian rivals in 1948 and 1965, and a third could trigger nuclear volleys and a nuclear winter threatening the entire globe. The United States would enjoy no sanctuary. Both India and Pakistan are racing like thoroughbreds to bolster their nuclear arsenals and advanced delivery vehicles. Their defense budgets are climbing despite widespread misery amongst their populations.

“The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.” Martin Luther King

“Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.” Philip Berrigan, American Peace Activist.

The nuclear age has placed in the world’s lap a growing and complex set of threats that create the possibility of an all-out holocaust in some part of the world almost every day. We now have North Korea threatening Seoul, testing intercontinental ballistic missiles and bragging about hydrogen bombs. Few people know that the Korean War has never ended. The Armistice Agreement was just a ceasefire. No formal treaty was ever signed. Then there’s NATO playing war games at Russia’s borders, with generals talking about taking back Crimea. And let’s not forget Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who has threatened to attack Iran unilaterally if no one else does it. But in South Asia, the mainstream media seems to overlook frequently a continuous and ongoing threat of another kind.

N.N. Vohra, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and apparent ventriloquist dummy for some folks a little further south, according to Kashmir Today, “observed that it is the duty of all citizens to protect and preserve the unity and integrity of the nation, adding that towards the attainment of such an objective all of us must join hands to negate all divisive and communal forces and promote societal harmony and brotherhood.”

India is of course celebrating its 67th Republic Day to honor its Constitution that became enforceable on January 26 in 1950. But the world’s largest “democracy” had no such democratic intentions for Kashmir. It was just two years earlier that the United Nations Security Council had been adopted, creating the Ceasefire Line, which was to end the war, stave off further conflict between India and Pakistan and pave the way for conditions in which a plebiscite could be held in which the people of Jammu and Kashmir could decide for themselves whether they wished to be an integral part of India, join Pakistan, or be free to chart their own course as an independent state.