LONDON, Mar 6: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said that Pakistan vacating Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir would resolve the Kashmir issue in its entirety. The Minister was responding to a question from a member of the audience at the Chatham House, the London-based thinktank. The question was about whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi could use his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump to “solve” the Kashmir issue.
“Removing Article 370 was step number one,” Mr. Jaishankar said, referring to the controversial changes in the special status of Jammu and Kashmir made by the government in August 2019.
“Then restoring growth and economic activity and social justice in Kashmir was step number two,” the Minister added.
“Holding elections, which were done with a very high turnout, was step number three. I think the part we are waiting for is the return of the stolen part of Kashmir, which is under illegal Pakistani occupation. When that’s done, I assure you, Kashmir [is] solved,” he said.
The discussion host, Chatham House chief executive Bronwen Maddox, suggested there were a number of questions on Kashmir as well as human rights. The House of Commons held a debate earlier in the day, “Government support for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir”, led by Labour MP Sarah Smith.
Asked if the Indian government acknowledges some of its shortcomings on human rights, Mr. Jaishankar said the government had, for political reasons, been at the receiving end of campaigns around human rights.
“There can be situations which require redressal and remedy,” he said, adding that India had a strong record on human rights relative to global comparators.
“I think any sort of sweeping concern on human rights is really misplaced. I don’t see justification for it at all,” he added.
Mr. Jaishankar had, earlier in the discussion, referred to the idea of equal delivery of benefits for all Indian citizens — a concept he has used before to defend the government record on human rights.
In some parts of the world there was a politics that was driven by “creating” and “pandering to” identity politics, the Minister said.
Good politics was about “treating your citizens equally”, he argued.
Concerns raised by Indian citizens, organisations within and outside India, and foreign governments, when they are raised, however, have been larger in scope and on topics other than the delivery of benefits.
