New Delhi, Aug 21 — India's former Ambassador to the United States and BJP MP Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday credited US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor for providing a "correct perspective" on Jammu and Kashmir by calling it as an "important part of India" during his visit to Srinagar, earlier this week.
The American envoy visited Srinagar on August 19 and made a significant endorsement of India's stated position on Jammu and Kashmir by describing the Union Territory as "an important part of India" with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah standing by his side.
Shringla, a former Foreign Secretary, cited that Gor's statement is important for two reasons.
"One is that, there has been no such statement in the past by the United States. Their statements have been nuanced and more coloured by other factors including the fact that there is an issue in the United Nations and also, of course, their own position vis-a-vis how they look at it between India and Pakistan. So, one is that he made a categorical statement that is very, very significant," the Rajya Sabha MP told IANS in an exclusive chat.
"Secondly, Sergio Gor is not an ordinary representative of the United States. He is a very close associate of the President of the United States. He's also Ambassador, not just in India, but he covers the whole of South and Central Asia, which means that he has a coverage of the entire region, and therefore he speaks beyond what I think would be simply as the Ambassador to India. I think from that point of view, the US Ambassador visiting Jammu and Kashmir, going to Srinagar, meeting the Chief Minister and making that statement is very, very significant," he added.
He highlighted that there has been a lot of ground that has been covered since the previous visits to Kashmir by previous United States Ambassadors to India, including Robert Blackwill and Kenneth Juster who had visited Srinagar along with envoys from 14 other countries in 2020.
Juster's participation, said Shringla, was a very "strong manifestation" of the US support for our position on the abrogation of Article 370 and also put paid to many of the issues that were coming up in US Congress and other places on the issue.
The seasoned diplomat turned MP said that there is no more ambiguity with regard to the status of Jammu and Kashmir now with the abrogation of Article 370 bringing Kashmir into the mainstream of polity and economy and the people of J&K fully integrated with the rest of the country.
"They are also seeing, you know, the levels of economic development and progress in India under Prime Minister Modi — huge amounts of, I would say, development that is benefiting them directly. A surge in tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, and that was also, I think, greatly helped by the G20 meeting that we scheduled in Srinagar. I was chief coordinator of G20 at that time. I thought it was a game changer, the decision taken by the Prime Minister to have G20 in Jammu and Kashmir, in Srinagar," Shringla, the Chief Coordinator for India's G20 Presidency, told IANS.
"Then, of course, the fact that they look on the other side and see Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, they see the lack of freedom, the lack of economic development, they see the hardships and tribulations that their counterparts on the other side of the border are going through, and I don't think they want a future that is going to be similar," he stated.
Gor's visit to Srinagar came at a time when massive protests continue to rock Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where dozens of protestors have been killed facing the brutality of Pakistani forces over the past few months.
"Here is the whole of PoK saying we want to come and become a part of India, so why would you want to go and join that when you're on the right side of the fence. And I think this is something that is a great achievement for India and Ambassador Sergio Gor, whom I know very well, is someone who doesn't make statements casually. He is, he's obviously, you know, someone who calibrates what he says. He's, as I said, someone who's very important in the US administration and he is someone who I think sees things more from a political point of view than previous diplomats, career diplomats, who have been limited in their vision.
"And, I would certainly credit him (Gor) with providing a perspective that is not only correct, but also both in the United States and internationally sends a strong signal that this is no longer an issue. This is something that countries should now recognise is not an international issue, that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India," Shringla told IANS.