I spent a long time over this weekend listening to the entire US Congressional testimony over Kashmir. Some things were eye opening.
1) Anyone who plays the US-India bhai bhai song is an out and out liar. The line taken by the US Congress was purely Islamist.
1) Anyone who plays the US-India bhai bhai song is an out and out liar. The line taken by the US Congress was purely Islamist.
2) The anti-India, and pro-Jihadi lobbies in the US are hyper-powerful. These lobbies have very significant Democratic support. The way even the chairman, Brad Sherman, shut up Aarti Tikoo was extremely interesting. Shows the depth of the anti-India feeling over Kashmir.
3) The anti-India lobby had come superbly prepared [Nitasha Kaul, Francisco Bencosme, and Angana Chatterjee might be scum, but they are capable scum. At least, they lie without getting caught. And Nitasha Kaul is an open ideological opponent of India and Hindus].
4) Nitasha Kaul is the easier enemy to handle. She is emotional, and doesn't try to hide her hatred. The other two are professional Indiaphobes and Hinduphobes. The disguise it beneath a professional manner, but are extremely partisan.
5) The most important thing to me was how the American Congress simply ignored the pro-India witnesses. Neither Ravi Batra, nor Aarti Tikoo got many questions to answer. Most questions were to Francisco Bencosme, and he was palpably pro-Jihadi.
6) Ilhan Omar is a dumb Islamist. Her nastiness caught even the hyper-partisan US Congress by surprise. The way she abused Aarti Tikoo was extremely silly. But then, she was just playing to her Islamist gallery.
7) What this tells me is that the entire Indo-US bhai bhai is a completely nonsensical trope. None in the US Congress even remotely took even a neutral line. Isn't there supposed to be an `India caucus'? Well, we certainly aren't getting much help from them!
