In letter to Mike Pompeo, lawmakers also express concerns over controversial CAA.
With preparations in full swing ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to India, this may come as a bit of unsettling political news from the US for his host Indian Prime Minister Minister Narendra Modi.
Four top US Senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, have written a strongly worded letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concerns about Internet curbs and preventive detention of key political figures in the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir after revocation of its special status.
The letter signed by Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Richard J Durbin and Republicans Todd Young and Lindsey O. Graham also expresses concerns about India’s new controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is considered close to Trump.
The letter opens by stating that the four senators have been long-time friends of India and view the recent actions by the Modi government as troubling in nature.
The letter noted that it has been six months since the Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution giving Jammu and Kashmir a special status and split it into two federally ruled Union Territories.
Calling out India for the longest ever shutdown of internet by a democracy, the senators expressed concern over how it is hampering medical care, businesses and schools for kids and affecting the lives of seven million people in the region.
It also highlights that hundreds of people including key political figures continue to remain in preventive detention.
The letter notes that in the Fiscal Year 2020, State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations report, the Congress urged the Indian government to restore telecommunications and lift the lockdown and curfew.
The senators asked for a careful assessment within 30 days of the number of individuals detained by the Indian government for political reasons due to the revocation of Article 370 as well as the number of individuals affected by any excessive use of force by Indian authorities against demonstrators opposing the CAA.