‘Have No Interest In Meeting Her’: S Jaishankar Cancels US Meet Over Inclusion Of Anti-India Pramila Jayapal

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday (20 December) announced the cancellation of a meeting with US lawmakers because he objected to the participation of Pramila Jayapal, an Indian-American Representative who has on several occasions taken anti-India positions.

Jaishankar was scheduled to meet House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel, Michael McCaul, the Republican Party leader on the panel, Jayapal, who is not a member of the committee, and others to discuss the Kashmir situation.

Indian officials told the committee that Jaishankar would not meet them if Jayapal was included in the group.

However Chairman Engel refused to exclude Jayapal from the group and Jaishankar cancelled the meeting.

Jayapal has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives asking India to end the so-called communications blockade and the "mass detentions" in the Kashmir.

She had also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS at a hearing on Kashmir held by the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in October.

She alleged that religious minorities in India were in danger and felt threatened.

(With inputs from IANS)