J&K: US assures of ‘partnership’, as Congress members criticise

NEW YORK: While US President Donald Trump’s Administration gave a reassurance that relations with India was a partnership and that it does not take a position on the revocation of Kashmir’s special constitutional status, India’s restrictions on communications and movement there have been criticised harshly by several members of US Congress.
“When we see Indian institutions have failed or respond slowly it is something that we take up but this is not a relationship of dictation, it is a relationship of partnership,” Alice Wells, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State, said at a hearing on human rights in South Asia held by a Congressional subcommittee in Washington on Tuesday.
She said, “We are not taking a position on Article 370,” the constitutional provision that gave Jammu and Kashmir as special status, which has been rescinded.
But “we are taking a position on whether Kashmiris can live with dignity and have full economic and political life,” she said.
She said that the State Department had expressed the concern over the detentions of local residents and political leaders, including three former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and has “urged Indian authorities to respect human rights and restore full access to services, including internet and mobile networks.” About 12 members of Congress who spoke during the four and a half hours of hearings uniformly expressed concern about the detentions, restrictions on communications and movement and the prevention of non-Indian journalists from visiting Kashmir.