Jayapal added to list of US lawmakers to meet Jaishankar without Engel's approval 

Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was not aware of the inclusion of non-member Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and two others to the list of the lawmakers to meet the visiting External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, last week, sources said.

During his visit to Washington for the 2+2 US-India dialogue, Jaishankar had refused to meet Jayapal who had introduced a Congressional resolution on Kashmir urging India to lift all the restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir imposed after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5.

Engel, the Democratic lawmaker from New York, who along with Ranking Member Michael McCaul, was initially scheduled to meet Jaishankar on December 18, is believed to have come to know about the addition to the team only after the Indian Embassy here objected to the changes what was initially agreed upon, sources told PTI.

Also read: Jaishankar states why he called off meeting with US lawmaker Pramila Jayapal

But by then, the morning of December 18, when Engel came to know about it, it was too late for him and it would have been quite inappropriate for him to take any step that could have been seen as going against his own Congressional colleagues, they said.

The Indian Embassy, miffed at the manner in which additional names of lawmakers who were not even members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were added without keeping into confidence, cancelled the meeting, the sources said.

In its communication, the Indian Embassy asserted that the External Affairs Minister had only sought meetings with the leadership of the Foreign Affairs Committee and that is what was agreed upon.

The embassy reportedly queried about the rational of adding at least one and possibly three non-members to the list and cancelled the meeting upon getting unsatisfactory response.

Also read: Restore internet services and end detentions in J&K, urges US lawmaker

In an interview to PTI last week, eminent Indian-American Bharat Barai, who has engaged with Jayapal in the past on her Kashmir resolution, alleged that Jayapal probably wanted to indulge in a heated argument with Jaishankar and then go to the media and get propaganda out of it.

The Chennai-born first-ever Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives, has been one of the few lawmakers who are mostly from the Democratic Party raising their voices against the Indian government’s move on Jammu and Kashmir.