The US ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer, who was in Srinagar, said his country is interested in better relations between India and Pakistan and that Kashmir necessarily is a bilateral matter between the two nations.
Though Mr Roemer was actually reiterating the statement made by President Barak Obama in this regard, the assertion with his choosing to meet chief minister Omar Abdullah during his two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir and leaving out Separatists as well as main regional Opposition People’s Democratic Party is an issue which is likely to be deliberated in local political circles for days to come.
Already, some Kashmir watchers see in it a virtual snub, at least, to the Separatists.
Also, the United States ambassador had on Thursday left no doubt in anybody’s mind about his country’s official stance on the issue of Kashmir by calling it like any other part of India.
Explaining the purpose of his visit to Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “I want to engage with the people of Jammu and Kashmir just as I do with the people everywhere else in India.”
While the mainstream Opposition is silent on his skipping it, the Separatists have shrugged off his statements and ignoring them by saying the it would not alter the ground realities in the state.
“It should not be and is not a matter of concern for us at all. To decide his itinerary was purely his own choice. His skipping the wide and utter political voice, however, can’t alter the reality about Kashmir,” said a spokesperson of the Hurriyat Conference.