US President Donald Trump's offer to work with India and Pakistan for a solution to Kashmir has stirred up a debate over globalisation of the issue, weeks after Union home minister Amit Shah had proclaimed that separatism was now history in Kashmir.
The four days of India-Pakistan hostilities have swivelled the spotlight back on Kashmir after Delhi politically marginalised the separatists following the scrapping of the special status in 2019.
Trump has now pressed Delhi's raw nerve by offering to mediate on Kashmir, which is threatening to bring the issue onto the global stage. “I will work with you, both to see if, after a ‘thousand years’, a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
Trump's remarks fly in the face of Shah's claim in March that “the unifying policies of the Modi government have tossed separatism out of J&K”.
A separatist leader said on the condition of anonymity that Trump’s remark was the icing on the cake for the cause of azaadi.
“The recent hostilities have brought Kashmir out of the shadows. Over the last few years, we had no freedom to talk. On the global stage, there was nobody talking about us, not even Pakistan (the way they would). Now you have the President of the most powerful country offering to mediate,” the leader said.
Many local voices on Sunday wondered about the ramifications of Trump’s offer.
“What we got to know — Once again, Kashmir has become an international issue?” Amir Choudhary, chief spokesperson for the Gujjar Bakerwal Students Association, posted on X.
Jammu-based political analyst Zaffar Choudhary, in a long social media post, wondered whether Trump’s statement had been read in Delhi.
"From India's national policy perspective, the external dimension of the Kashmir conflict was effectively addressed in 1972 Simla Agreement which also rendered the issue strictly bilateral. Leave aside any third-party intervention, India has flatly refused to report to and even recognise the existence of UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan) ever since,” he wrote.
Choudhary said the 2019 scrapping of special status even erased any "reason for future political resetting between Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi”, questioned “Pakistan’s locus standi” and even denied it “any role in future of Kashmir”.
“And, now, a day after announcing ceasefire, much before the Indian government could indicate its intentions of de-escalation in the midst of a billion war cries, the US President not only underlines Kashmir as a festering issue but also offers to mediate. Does India agree to this?” he asked.
Trump's remarks have angered India’s top foreign policy experts, who were supportive of many of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“International fallout: By agreeing to abort under US persuasion its Operation Sindoor after just three days of military operations, India is drawing international attention to the Kashmir dispute, not to Pakistan's cross-border terrorism that triggered the crisis,” author Brahma Chellaney wrote on X.
“Without mentioning the core issue of transborder terror, he — playing into Pakistan's hands — wants to mediate a Kashmir solution. International media outlets, too, are harping on Kashmir, not cross-border terror, as the central issue,” he added.
Congress MP Manish Tewari said Trump should know that "Kashmir is not a biblical 1,000-year-old conflict". "Someone in the US establishment needs to seriously educate their President @POTUS @realDonaldTrump that Kashmir is not a biblical 1000 year old conflict. It started on 22nd October 1947-78 years ago when Pakistan invaded the Independent State of Jammu & Kashmir that subsequently was ceded to India in 'FULL’ by Maharaja Hari Singh on 26th October 1947 that includes areas illegally occupied by Pakistan till now. How difficult is it to grasp this simple fact?" Tewari posted on X.
