NEW YORK – Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, two leadingDemocratic Party candidates for the 2020 US presidential elections; theCo-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Congressman JimMcGovern; and a number of other members of the US Congress have expressedreservations about New Delhi trying to silence or dictate the reaction ofthe US Congress to Indian excesses in occupied Kashmir.
The extraordinary reaction from both houses of US Congress comes afterIndian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Fridaycancelled a meeting with the very high profile and important Congress HouseCommittee on Foreign Affairs.
Jaishankar had asked House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. EliotEngel to exclude Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from the meeting, which Rep.Engel had refused.
Congresswoman Jayapal had moved Resolution 745 in Congress on Dec 6, 2019against Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. Twenty-nine members of theCongress co-sponsored that resolution, which is most likely to be adoptedsoon.
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In the resolution, Congresswoman Jayapal had asked India to lift thecommunication blockade imposed since Aug 5 in occupied Kashmir, restore allpolitical rights of Kashmiris, release political prisoners and detainees,and allow human rights organizations and journalists access to theterritory.
On October 22, 2019, when the subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committeeon Asia had held a scathing hearing on occupied Kashmir, CongresswomanJayapal had strongly highlighted the abuse of human rights in Indian-heldKashmir after Aug 5.
