India-US partnership can only succeed if it is rooted in honest dialogue: Warren

The partnership between India and the US will “only succeed if it is rooted in honest dialogue and shared respect” for religious pluralism, democracy and human rights, top American Senator and Democratic presidential aspirant Elizabeth Warren said on Friday.

Warren made the comments a day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar refused to meet Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who introduced the Congressional resolution on Kashmir urging India to lift all the restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir imposed after revoking Article 370.

Addressing a group of Indian reporters here on Thursday as he concluded his trip to Washington DC, which was primarily to attend the India-US 2+2 dialogue, Jaishankar said the resolution introduced this month in the House of Representatives was not a fair characterisation of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The US and India have an important partnership — but our partnership can only succeed if it is rooted in honest dialogue and shared respect for religious pluralism, democracy, and human rights,” Warren said in a tweet.

She said the “efforts to silence” Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal  “are  deeply troubling.”

Earlier, The Washington Post reported that Jaishankar "abruptly cancelled a meeting with senior members of Congress this week after US lawmakers refused demands to exclude" Jayapal from the meeting.

Jaishankar was to meet chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Eliot L Engel; committee's top Republican Michael McCaul and others, including Congresswoman Jayapal, the report said.

Jayapal said she had planned to advance her resolution on Kashmir this week but was urged to wait until after meeting with Jaishankar. Now she plans to renew her push for the resolution in January, the report said.