Hours after Vijay Gokhale, India’s foreign secretary released the week-long schedule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his US visit, Houston Chronicle, the main Texas newspaper, broke news indicating the visit was going to be newsy and noisy. A Khalistani activist raked up Kashmir and used America’s The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 to get a US court issue summons to Modi, Home Minister, Amit Shah and Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, the commander of the Srinagar based 15 corps. The civil complaint accused the three of inflicting “cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment” upon Kashmiris, was aimed at only one thing - making news.
This marked the start of Kashmir chasing, if not completely dominating the Modi’s US visit primarily focused on to attend the United Nations General Assembly, considered to be diplomacy’s perennial pilgrimage. Gokhale insisted that India’s stand on third party role in Kashmir is already ruled out and that Prime Minister will focus on what the “UNGA high-level segment is meant to focus on”.
By then, a huge battery of Indian diplomats was already stationed in New York. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his deputy V Muraleedharan were busy meeting NAM members, the Commonwealth, the Central American grouping of SICA and BRICS and a broad spectrum of the UN membership. Preparations for Modi’s Howdy Modi event at Houston were at its peak. So were India’s neighbors busy.
This story is from the September 29 - October 05, 2019 edition of Kashmir Life.
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This story is from the September 29 - October 05, 2019 edition of Kashmir Life.
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