Joe Biden has been elected as the 46th President of the United States of America but some thousand kilometres away, here in India, the liberals and the secular parties are feeling uncharacteristically ecstatic at the prospect of his coronation. The leaders in Congress and opposition parties are now naively enough, calling upon Joe Biden as the leader who would help them restore Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Joe Biden will definitely create pressure on the government of India that the decision that was taken on August 4, 2019, in an undemocratic manner ie revocation of Article 370 and 35 (A),” said Jahanzeb Sirwal, Congress spokesperson.
Congress Kashmir Controversy!
Party leader in J&K calls out for help from US President-Elect @JoeBiden in reinstating Article 370.
Congress parroting ‘Gupkar gang’?
Pranesh Kumar Roy on @thenewshour Special Edition. pic.twitter.com/9TmUawXWkX
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) November 8, 2020
Being a party spokesperson, Jahanzeb and his statements can be dubbed as Congress’ official line on the issue. The big leaders of the party are yet to come out and refute the statements of Jahanzeb and once again, it looks like Congress is chalking a hara-kiri route for its revival.
In a policy paper posted on Biden’s campaign website in June this year, titled ‘Joe Biden’s agenda for Muslim American community’, the President-elect had asked the Indian government to take “all necessary steps to restore the rights of all the people of Kashmir”.
Historically, the Democrats have been known moderates, and the old party leaders like Joe Biden (a known moderate), who have plied their trade for the last 3-4 decades in the power corridor of Washington, understand that making sweeping statements before an election and actually implementing them afterwards is a different ball game altogether.
It’s a fact hidden from no one that Joe Biden has distanced himself from the emerging left-wing Democrat faction of Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilahan Omer, RashidaTlaib and Ayanna Pressley and, therefore, one would expect him to keep a rational approach and stay away from India’s sovereign business.
The liberals in the country are mainly buoyed by the statements of Kamala Harris, the Vice-President-elect who had made some remarks about Kashmir before she was the Democrat nominee. Harris had last year evoked the Kashmir issue after the abrogation of Article 370 and toed the line of the liberals of the country.
“We have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping a track on the situation, there is a need to intervene if the situation demands,” Kamala Harris had said in a statement last year when she was seeking the presidential nomination from the Democratic Party.
Whatever Kamala’s disagreement with the current regime in India might have been in the past, that can’t be changed, but once in power, she would have to understand that she cannot go on about her old ways. Harris and the Democrats will have to inadvertently rein in their liberal ideas.
Off late, it has become a trend amongst the international press, the Democrats, and liberals around the world to poke their nose in India’s Kashmir matter. Jeremy Corbyn of UK had to learn this the hard way and surely the duo of Biden and Harris would not like to instigate the Indian-Americans.
However, the daydreaming of Congress shows two things–one, they can throw away India’s sovereignty when some decision doesn’t suit their agendas, secondly, Congress is still living in the colonial mindset where they imagine some white messiah coming from the far foreign land would make everything right for them.
