US senator raises concern over Kashmir situation
WASHINGTON:IN a sign of growing disquiet in the US Congress over the situation in Kashmir, senator and leading Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination Elizabeth Warren on Saturday expressed concern over the continuing restrictions in the region, joining fellow senators and rivals Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris.
Coming ahead of a congressional hearing on October 22 on Kashmir, Warren’s remarks would worry New Delhi, which considers Congress the most supportive of American institutions. The Trump administration, which initially offered to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, later reverted to letting India and Pakistan resolve it bilaterally.
“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,” senator Warren, a leading candidate for the party’s nomination, had tweeted.
Senator Sanders was the first of the Democratic candidates to raise the Kashmir issue during an event in September. “India’s action is unacceptable” and “the communications blockade must be lifted immediately,” he said.
Senator Harris, who is of Indian descent, had raised similar concerns, saying, “We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone... There is a need to intervene if situation demands.”
New Delhi has been dismissive of the concerns, arguing that US lawmakers say a lot of things “because people go to individual members of Congress . (and) what they say is not necessarily a function of their knowledge about that particular subject”. NEW DELHI: When then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton visited India in July 2011, she wanted to travel to Amritsar, but ended up in Chennai after she was told that the waters from the ancient port city of south India touched the western shores of the US, defining Indopacific in a true sense. The presence of the Arakkonam naval air base near Chennai also defined the QUAD security grouping, with the Boeing P-8I Neptune anti-submarine, ship interdictor and anti-surface warfare platform stationed at the base and in touch with US and Australia counterparts under COMCASA, or Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement.
While Chennai’s linkages with QUAD are still in a nascent stage, the Pallava capital of Kanchipuram was visited by Chinese traveller Huien Tsang or Xuanzang 2,000 years ago.
The heritage city of Mahabalipuram, now Mamallapuram, was also the showcase of the Pallavas and will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi host Chinese President Xi Jinping from October 11-13 at the second informal summit between the two leaders.
The success of this summit lies in whether President Xi can exorcise the ghost of Pakistan from Chinese perception of its bilateral engagement with India.
If Xi can get over the Pakistan hangover and focus directly on improving bilateral ties with India, the summit will take the relationship forward; or else this will be just another milestone.
Fact is that at the heart of India-china mistrust lies Beijing’s all-weather ally, Islamabad, with the middle kingdom backing Pakistan entirely on issues like cross-border terrorism, nuclear suppliers group, UN expansion, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Jammu and Kashmir.
The other source of mistrust is China’s unwillingness to give India space on the global high table and its efforts to confine New Delhi to a regional power locked in death combat with Pakistan.
Although India and China have had a border dispute for the past 50 years, the two sides have managed occasional flareups very astutely with not a single bullet being fired since the Nathu La skirmish in 1967.
The two sides have convergence on global issues like climate change and are focused on greening their countries.
At the informal summit, President Xi will have the option of either reading the laundry list of Pakistan’s concerns with India or explore new areas of cooperation with PM Modi.
After hosting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing on October 8-10 and hearing out