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

The Congressional resolution on Kashmir introduced by Pramila Jayapal is not a fair characterisation of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

The Chennai-born first-ever Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives ignored the voices of the diaspora from across the country as she went ahead with her pre-announced plans to introduce the resolution on Kashmir in the House early this month.

The pending resolution, introduced after several weeks of efforts by the 54-year-old Jayapal, urges India to lift as swiftly as possible all restrictions on communications in Jammu and Kashmir which were imposed following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5. It also urges to preserve religious freedom for all the residents of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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India has defended the imposition of restrictions in Kashmir on the grounds that they were put to prevent Pakistan from creating more mischief through proxies and terrorists following the abrogation of Article 370 which ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

“I am aware of that (Congressional) resolution. I don’t think it’s a fair understanding of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir or fair characterisation of what the government of India is doing. And I have no interest in the meeting (Jayapal),” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters on Thursday (December 19) as he concluded his trip to Washington DC, which was primarily to attend the India-US 2+2 dialogue.

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The second 2+2 ministerial dialogue was hosted by Secretary of State Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Esper for their Indian counterparts Jaishankar and Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh.

“I have an interest in meeting people who are objective and open to discussion but not the people who already made up their minds,” Jaishankar said in response.

According to a report in The Washington Post, Jaishankar “abruptly cancelled a meeting with senior members of Congress this week after US lawmakers refused demands to exclude” Jayapal from the meeting.

However, Congressional sources familiar with the deliberations said that the meeting was cancelled as House Foreign Affairs Committee kept on changing the ground rules of the meeting and kept on adding new members to the list.

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