Hafizzz
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India was nervous over US Kashmir policy
India was nervous over US Kashmir policy | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
Its the untouchable K- word that makes the establishment in Delhi jump up and down. And thats precisely what US Ambassador David Mulfords confidential cable to Washington tried to elaborate on at the end of his five-year eventful stint in India.
In fact, Mulford told his bosses that New Delhi looked at America with a glint of suspicion and detest as it held Uncle Sam as partial arbitrator on Kashmir.
In an unusually lengthy cable running into nearly 2,700 words, currently leaked on the WikiLeaks website, Mulford cautioned the new US government under Barack Obama that India viewed the US Kashmir policy as skewed because it had generous tilt towards Pakistan.
This cable sent on January 30, 2009, barely 10 days after Obama was sworn in, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the US to follow a hands-off policy on Kashmir.
Mulford said he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 13, but refrained from putting every minute of the meeting into the long-distance diplomatic cable. But the cable did explain why India did not trust the US on the Kashmir issue. The arguments offered by Indians against any third party role in Kashmir is that the US is not an impartial arbitrator because it has other compelling interests - such as ensuring Pakistani cooperation on Afghanistan - that favour a tilt towards Pakistan, the cable said.
He said there was uncertainty and anxiety within New Delhis foreign policy establishment over the direction the Obama administration might now take on its India policy.
This anxiety stems from Obamas interview to Time when he was running for Presidency.
He told the magazine that his priority would be an American role in resolving the niggling Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India.
This message examines Indian angst over perceived US interest in playing an active role in the Kashmir dispute.
India fears any renewed US activism on Kashmir as it sees this is aimed to win Indian concession in return for Pakistani assistance on Afghanistan, Mulford wrote.
The former US Ambassador pointed out that neither he nor had any Senator, White House representative or senior US government official had visited Held Kashmir throughout his five year term to allay Indian fears that America could mediate between India and Pakistan on the dispute.
Indians believe that the hands-off US policy on Held Kashmir that was followed by the previous US administration was wise and successful. The Prime Minister reemphasised this during a one-on-one meeting with the Ambassador on January 13th, Mulford said.
He pointed out that any third party mediation - be it the United Nations or the US or any European nation would just be politically impossible for India.
He advised the Obama administration that Washington should avoid a direct role in solving the Held Kashmir dispute and quietly prod the two nuclear-armed neighbouring nations to thrash out a solution on their own.
We should support them when we can from behind the scenes and without leaving our fingerprints. What India will find objectionable is any arm-twisting or any public hint that the US is pressuring India to move in a particular way on Held Kashmir, the cable said.
Indians believed that the Kashmir dispute could provide no inspiration to terrorists in the region, he said.
India views terrorist attacks in the region, particularly against India, are driven by a radical pan-Islamist ideology whose ultimate aim is to establish Muslim rule over all of South Asia. Such an ideology would merely view Indian concessions or weakness on Held Kashmir as a battlefield victory, Mulford wrote.
Kashmir deserve the right to self-control of their own homeland.
