A second American presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren, has joined the growing chorus of voices from the US Congress against the continuing clampdown in Kashmir, puncturing the Narendra Modi government’s claims that global opinion was on its side on the issue.
“The US-India partnership has always been rooted in our shared democratic values. I’m concerned about recent events in Kashmir, including a continued communications blackout and other restrictions. The rights of the people of Kashmir must be respected,” the Senator, who is a Democrat contender for the 2020 presidential elections, tweeted on Saturday.
Bernie Sanders, also a Democrat 2020 presidential contender, had on September 1 asked the US government to “speak out boldly” in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution of the issue.
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that the US Senate Appropriations Committee had in the last week of September unanimously cleared an amendment to an Appropriations Bill, stating that it “notes with concern the current humanitarian crisis in Kashmir”.
The amendment urged India to fully restore telecommunications and Internet services; lift its lockdown and curfew; and release individuals detained after the revocation of special status under Article 370.
That the Senate Committee could show such bipartisan support for the amendment at a time when both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar were in the US, working the various networks and lobbies to minimise adverse comment on Kashmir, shows that the outreach has not exactly gone the government’s way.
At his first news conference as minister on September 17, Jaishankar had sought to play down the early statements trickling out of the US Congress. That trickle has grown into a steady flow of statements despite the foreign minister staying back in the US for series of meetings in Washington with the administration and think tanks.
Union home minister Amit Shah had last Sunday claimed that India had successfully convinced the world about Article 370.
