‘Hope you understand as a Native Indian’: Indian MP shreds Warren for criticizing canceled meeting with US reps over Kashmir

An Indian MP has taken US Senator Elizabeth Warren to task after she raised concerns about a canceled meeting between New Delhi and a fellow progressive lawmaker, poking fun at her self-declared Native American bona fides.

After Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar scrapped a scheduled meeting with US lawmakers – including Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) – during the 2+2 summit in Washington on Friday, Warren fired off a tweet calling “efforts to silence” the congresswoman “deeply troubling.” The tweet prompted a swift mocking response from BJP lawmaker Rajeev Chandrasekhar, arguing that Jayapal is no authority on Kashmir.

“We are sorry you’re troubled. Don't be,” Chandrasekhar said. “We have no objections to Pramila Jayapal mumbling to herself, or even to you, on stuff she knows nothing about.”

It’s just that we don’t want to waste our time listening to her nonsense. Hope you understand being Native [American] Indian and all.

Jaishankar says he called off the meeting due to Jayapal’s “unfair” characterization of the situation in the India-controlled part of Kashmir, which lost its autonomy status in August after New Dehli changed its constitution in a bid to “integrate” the territory. India deployed thousands of troops into the area and clamped down on communications soon after the move, measures which the India-born Jayapal continues to criticize. She is currently sponsoring a resolution in Congress to urge New Delhi to shift its approach in the region.

Officials of the ruling BJP insist the decision was necessary to spur economic growth and cut down on local corruption, but some opposition figures have been vocally opposed to the government’s Kashmir policy.

Sanjay Jha, a national spokesman for the opposition Congress party, insisted the external affairs minister “embarrassed India” by canceling the meeting, and commended Warren, a 2020 US presidential hopeful, for her response.

Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, has been the subject of rival territorial claims for decades, with India and Pakistan fighting two of their three major wars over control of the region. Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors have soared since New Delhi nixed the territory’s autonomy over the summer, with officials on both sides intermittently threatening one another with war.

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