OBSERVER REPORT
WASHINGTON Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has cancelled a meeting with senior members of the United State’s Congress this week over Kashmir criticisms, the Washington Post reported. According to the report published on Thursday, US lawmakers had refused demands to exclude from the meeting a congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal, who had criticised the Indian government’s actions and policies in the occupied valley. During his visit to Washington, the Indian external affairs minister was slated to meet the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Representative Elliot L Engel, the committee’s top Republican Rep Michael McCaul and others, the report added. Jayapal, in a recent bipartisan resolution moved in Congress alongside Steve Watkins, had urged India to end the restrictions on communications and mass detentions in occupied Kashmir as swiftly as possible and preserve religious freedom for all residents. Born in Madras (Chennai), Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives. In response to the abrupt cancellation, Jayapal said: “The cancellation of the meeting was deeply disturbing. It only furthers the idea that the Indian government isn’t willing to listen to any dissent at all.”
