NEWS & ARTICLES
Mehbooba Mufti says foreign visits to Kashmir have been stage-managed since 2019. She is correct, though the practice is older than she admits.
ALLNEWS
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti criticised the manner in which foreign dignitaries visit Jammu and Kashmir, saying their tours have become curated since 2019 and do not provide them an opportunity to hear different sections of society. She stated that before 2019, whenever ambassadors came, they would meet people from every section of society, but after 2019 the tours are curated: they come, meet the Chief Minister, meet the Governor, go for a shikara ride, and leave.
Mufti states something accurate. Every foreign dignitary visit to Indian-controlled Kashmir since 2019 has been a managed production, with Kashmiri political prisoners, resistance voices, journalists, and civil society figures systematically excluded from any access. US Ambassador Sergio Gor's visit this week followed the exact template she describes: installed Chief Minister, unelected LG, shikara aesthetics, and a departure having spoken to no one who might have said something inconvenient.
Kashmir Conflict notes that this curation did not begin in 2019. It simply became more total. Foreign visits to Indian-controlled Kashmir have been carefully controlled for decades. What 2019 changed was the removal of any residual pretence that diversity of voices was being consulted. The template Mufti describes is the logical conclusion of a process her own party participated in building. The Kashmiri resistance, the Hurriyat, political prisoners, and ordinary Kashmiris have rejected Gor's statement regardless of who he met or did not meet. Their voices exist without being curated for visiting diplomats.
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