In a first, India invites foreign diplomats to Jammu and Kashmir to witness elections

Voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the first phase of assembly elections in Mazmoh area Kulgam district south of Srinagar on September 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Imran Nissar

Buoyed by the peaceful ongoing election in Jammu and Kashmi, and a higher voter turnout of 61% in the first phase of polling, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has invited a group of senior diplomats, mainly from the American, European and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) embassies, to visit Kashmir “for a first-hand account of the ongoing election process in J&K”, sources told The Hindu.

Official sources said the MEA extended invitations to around 20 diplomats of select embassies functioning in New Delhi, including the U.S., France, Germany, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia. So far, 16 diplomats have accepted the invitation. They are expected to arrive in Kashmir on a two-day visit on September 25, the day Srinagar is going to the polls.

MEA officials called the embassies over the past week, asking them to nominate diplomats for a visit in the next few days, before the second phase of polling on September 25, when capital Srinagar, besides Ganderbal and Budgam districts, go to the polls. A group of diplomats is likely to visit Kashmir before the third phase on October 1 as well, when north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts go to the polls.

The last time the government conducted such tours was in 2020, in the aftermath of the move to split the State and reduce it to two Union Territories, when groups of Ambassadors from different countries as well as Members of the European Parliament were taken to Jammu and Srinagar to quell concerns over the security measures taken, the Internet clampdown, and the arrests of hundreds of political activists in the Valley after August 5, 2019. Diplomats were also welcomed in Srinagar for a visit during the G20 tourism meet in May 2023.

In the run-up to the Assembly election in J&K last month, senior diplomats of Germany and the U.S. travelled to Srinagar and met a number of politicians, including the National Conference’s (NC) Omar Abdullah, Peoples Conference chief Sajjad Lone, and a number of other mainstream politicians in a bid to assess the ground situation. While the Canadian High Commission has not been included in the latest invitation from the MEA to travel to the Valley, sources said a team from the mission may travel to Jammu and Kashmir in the next week as well.

The MEA did not respond to a request for information about the visits and on what basis the embassies of different countries had been invited. According an official, some of the embassies had said the invitation had come at “very short notice” while others have expressed misgivings on going on a “guided tour”. One diplomat said that at least one P5 country had protested the MEA’s repeated denials of permission for their earlier requests to travel to the erstwhile State, while another diplomatic source said their embassy had declined on the basis that they did not receive enough clarity on the schedule of the programme.

New Delhi’s move to conduct the tours of diplomats comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in the United States, where he is attending the Quad Summit and the UN Summit of the Future, and reflects confidence in the law and order situation, despite an uptick in terror attacks on military camps in recent months. In a recent speech in Srinagar, Mr. Modi said that “the world was watching the people of J&K strengthening the Indian democracy”.

This also marks a major policy shift in India’s stand on elections in Kashmir compared with the past, when foreign diplomats were discouraged from visiting J&K during election processes.