Both BJP, Congress back Jaishankar over Jayapal issue

Political parties across the ideological spectrum in India have came out in support of Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar who canceled a meeting with senior members of the US Congress earlier this week after they refused to exclude Pramila Jayapal whom he was not interested in talking to.

Jayapal has been extremely critical of India's policies on Kashmir. She even introduced a resolution on Kashmir censuring India in the US House of Representatives.

Minister of External Affairs reasoned that it was "not a fair characterisation of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir" and that "he has no interest in meeting Indian-American Congresswoman and lawmakers who are neither objective nor open to discussion and have already made up their mind."

Strongly backing Jaishankar, former minister and Congress leader Milind Deora said in a tweet, "MEA represents the collective will of 1.3 billion Indians abroad. Our foreign policy must remain uncompromisingly nonpartisan."

Without mentioning any names, Deora censured the US Congress members and accused them of attacking India only to mollycoddle their "anti-India constituents".

"MEA & GOI are not punching bags for foreign legislators attempting to appease their anti-India constituents," he tweeted.

Similarly, BJP parliamentarian Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a tweet responded sharply to US Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren who is also running for office in 2020 presidential elections.

Jayapal had called the cancellation of the meeting "deeply disturbing".

Warren tweeted in support of Jayapal saying, "efforts to silence" her were "deeply troubling."

Another Democrat senator Kamala Harris also backed Jayapal.

Tearing into Warren's reaction, Chandrasekhar tweeted, "We are sorry you are troubled. Don't be. We have no objections to Pramila Jayapal mumbling to herself or even to you on the stuff she knows nothing about. It's just that we don't want to waste our time listening to her nonsense. Hope you understand being Native Indian and all."

Indians and Indian Americans rallied behind S. Jaishankar on social media congratulating him for taking a tough and bold stand.IANS