New Delhi: A group of foreign diplomats from nearly 16 embassies, including the US, arrived in Srinagar Wednesday to witness the second phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. As part of their programme, they will also visit polling booths in Budgam and Srinagar.
The special one-day visit is being organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Government sources highlighted that the foreign diplomats were invited to “witness” the election process, and were not “observers”. Details of the visit were kept under wraps due to security reasons, sources added.
The group is also being accompanied by representatives of the MEA.
“From the US perspective, I can say on the record that the purpose of the visit is to observe election polling at the invitation of MEA,” Christopher Elms, spokesperson of the US Embassy in New Delhi, told ThePrint.
US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Jorgen Andrews, and senior diplomats from other embassies including Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, Nigeria, Spain and Norway participated in the visit. Most embassies were represented by their chargé d’affaires or deputy chiefs of mission, while some were represented by political counsellors.
The last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held a decade ago.
Last December, the Supreme Court while upholding Parliament’s decision to revoke J&K’s special status ordered the Election Commission to conduct assembly elections in the UT before 30 September, 2024.
Elections to J&K’s 90 assembly seats are being conducted in three phases, with the declaration of results on 8 October.
A group of foreign diplomats is also “likely” to visit the UT again to observe the third phase of elections on 1 October, ThePrint has learnt.
In a first after Parliament turned J&K and Ladakh into UTs, foreign diplomats and officials were invited to the Kashmir Valley in 2020. Members of the European Parliament were taken on a ‘guided tour’ of Jammu and Srinagar at the time.
Another two-day visit of a group of 20 ambassadors of foreign countries was organised in February 2021. During India’s presidency of the G20 last year, diplomats were also invited to Srinagar for a visit last May.
Some politicians from J&K, however, have questioned why foreign diplomats have been allowed to visit the UT, but not foreign journalists.
“If diplomats can be brought here, why are foreign journalists not being permitted to come here and cover elections … diplomats are being brought here as guided tourists. This is not good,” National Conference (NC) vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said Wednesday.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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