Article 370: Jaishankar questions US media on Kashmir, says 'didn't present a fair picture'

The External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar on Monday said that the 'English-speaking, liberal' media of the US did not present a fair picture of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the 5th August decision of revoking Article 370. While speaking at the US-India strategic partnership forum in Delhi, Jaishankar said that the bigger challenge during his recently concluded US trip was to deal with the media than others.

"So, by the time I actually went to the US in September which was about six weeks after the event, we had made considerable progress. I think it was a much more difficult challenge with the media, especially the English-speaking liberal media because partly they were very ideological about it, they had strong preset views on this subject," said EAM S Jaishankar.

"In my view...in many ways they did not present a fair picture. Maybe they did not absorb a fair picture either. I found a lot of people... were surprised at the information that the particular provision of the Constitution that was changed was a temporary provision because the media does not say that," he added.

Noticeably, the Central government decided to revoke Article 370 and the special status of Jammu-Kashmir on 5th August. In response to it, Pakistan downgraded the diplomatic relations with India and also raised the issue at international platforms like the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at New York on 27th September. However, India won that the war at the international stage after diplomatic relations with the US in the form of meeting PM Modi with Donald Trump.

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