To counter Pakistan’s successful diplomacy, India launches counter maneuver in Washington
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WASHINGTON - To counter Pakistan’s successful diplomacy, India launches counter maneuver in Washington.
India’s Ambassador to the United States briefed American lawmakers on the situation in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the steps that have been taken by New Delhi to restore normalcy in the region after the restive state was stripped of its quasi-autonomous status in August.
India’s envoy to the United States Harsh Vardhan Shringla brought US legislators up to speed on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the steps New Delhi has taken to restore order there. The restive Muslim-majority state was stripped of its decades-old special status in August and divided into two federally-administered districts amid a military lock-down.
This enraged Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, who asserted that India had violated United Nations mandates guaranteeing the region's partial self-rule.
Earlier this week, US Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan link, after meeting with Pakistani leaders and a visit to the Pakistan Kashmir, had called upon both Islamabad and New Delhi to take urgent steps to de-escalate tensions in the Kashmir region.
Shringla and other Indian diplomats in New York and its consulates in other parts of the United States have been reaching out to dozens of Congressmen and their aides after India's parliament scuttled Article 370 and 35A of the nation's constitution in August (which guarantees Jammu and Kashmir's status) to explain New Delhi’s standpoint.
The Trump administration has also been mounting pressure on India to lift restrictions on Kashmir imposed shortly after New Delhi scrapped the state’s special status in early August. US President Trump also made several advances to mediate between India and Pakistan; however, the offer was emphatically rejected by New Delhi.
