New Delhi: Weeks after a row in India over its proceedings, the US Congress is once again set to examine the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir Thursday, looking to question the restrictions on internet and phone communication, and the heavy presence of military personnel in the Valley.
In a note, the Human Rights Commission of the US Congress said, “Witnesses will examine the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the context of the region’s history and larger patterns of rights violations in India and Pakistan, and will offer recommendations for action by Congress.”
The panel, also known as the Tom Lantos Commission, will also closely scrutinise the Narendra Modi government’s “sudden” decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. India has maintained that the issue is an internal matter.
“The increased militarization of the security presence in the region and the economic and social consequences of the central government’s actions, including continuing restrictions on internet and phones, have also provoked widespread concern,” said the note.
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‘Urgent need to address violations’
In its note, the US Congress has mentioned a 2018 report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on human rights violations in “both India and Pakistan-administered Kashmir”.
The OHCHR had “issued recommendations on a wide range of issues including civilian killings, deaths during security operations, blanket restrictions on journalists and independent observers, misuse of anti-terrorism legislation, and protection of religious minorities” in the region.
A follow-up OHCHR report in July this year found little improvement and reiterated the “urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and to deliver justice for all people in Kashmir”. However, it said the human rights problems are not “limited to the Kashmir region”.
The US Congress note said the patterns of human rights violations have been documented at the national level in India and Pakistan, including by the US Department of State in the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
As part of the hearings scheduled Thursday, Anurima Bhargava, the Commissioner of US Commission on International Religious Freedom, has been invited as witness for the first panel.
Human rights lawyers Sehla Ashai and Arjun S. Sethi, among others, will be addressing the second panel.
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It will be in India’s long term interest to engage meaningfully with these concerns. There is no inherent bias or malice towards India in the two Houses of Congress. A swift return to normalcy in Kashmir would also be desirable.
You fool, on whose payroll you work, always write crap about India. We don’t need West Approval.
And that is how the Democratic party lost the Indian American vote in 2020.