New Delhi: US Senator and Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders slammed India for the “lockdown” in Kashmir on a day US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were attending a public event with at least 50,000 Indian sand Indian Americans in attendance in Houston, Texas.
“When President (Donald) Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston, we will hear much about the friendship between the American and Indian peoples,” the 77-year-old junior senator and former Congressman from Vermont said in an opinion piece in Houston Chronicle.
“However, there will be a deafening silence when it comes to a human rights crisis unfolding right before our eyes – and that is unacceptable,” news reports quoted Sanders, a 2020 US presidential candidate as saying.
Addressing the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Houston on Saturday, Sanders said he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Kashmir and asked the US government to “speak out boldly” in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution to resolve the issue.
India in August withdrew a constitutional provision, cleared by Parliament, granting special status to Kashmir, and integrated the state more closely with the rest of India. The move has infuriated Pakistan as it takes away the question of India negotiating on the part of Kashmir under its governance and leaves only Pakistan administered Kashmir on the talks table with Islamabad.
Sanders’ comments came on a day Trump and Modi addressed a gathering of Indian-Americans and Indian community members at an event where attendance was the largest for any foreign leader other than the Pope. Besides Trump, there were about 20 US lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, who attended the “Howdy, Modi” event in Houston.
Modi introduced Trump as “my friend” under whose watch India-US relations have soared. Trump in his speech reciprocated in kind addressing Modi as “my friend” as he spoke of how Indian Americans had contributed to the community in the US and of how his administration was working for all Americans including Indian Americans.
At the end of the speech, the two leaders who had walked in together on stage hand in hand, took a walk around the NRG stadium hand in hand in a show of friendship waving and greeting those present.
The size of the gathering and Modi’s seeming show of support for Trump ahead of the US elections was not lost on anyone.
“Who could resist an audience of more than 50,000 Indian-Americans packed into a Texas football stadium? Not Donald Trump, on the eve of an election year, so he joined the “Howdy, Modi!” party here to proclaim, with the Indian prime minister, a great future of shared values and mutual reinforcement for the world’s two largest democracies,” said Roger Cohen, New York Times columnist in a piece published online on Monday.
That Trump was standing by Modi when the India prime minister spoke of abrogating article 370 signaled the US President’s approval, Cohen noted.
