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Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chairperson Omar Abdullah slammed Network18 consulting editor Rahul Shivshankar for spreading “misinformation and disinformation” in connection with the US diplomats’ recent visit to Kashmir.
In two spiraling posts speculating about the intent of the foreign delegates’ meeting with Abdullah, Shankar claimed on X that he was “told” that the National Conference “invited” the diplomats to “convince the US to withdraw travel advisories issued to US citizens against visiting J&K”.
Abdullah subsequently clarified that the NC did not seek a meeting with the US diplomats, but the latter “asked us to meet them”. He also said that the anchor “seems to be poorly informed about the procedure foreign diplomats have to follow when visiting Kashmir” and attached a news report on the same.
Foreign diplomats visiting Jammu and Kashmir require special permission from the Indian government granted through the Ministry of External Affairs. The permissions are granted following deliberations between different intelligence agencies and the Ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs.
What were Shivshankar’s allegations?
But the anchor questioned if the meeting between Abdullah and the US diplomats was necessary and if the centre was kept in the loop.
He then made a long tangent to connect the diplomat’s separate and ostensibly unrelated meetings with Abdullah and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and asked, “What were these shared issues and concerns?”
His argument eventually lost coherence as he asked, “Doesn’t this amount to involving third parties to interlocute in Bharat’s internal affairs? There have been no briefings by MEA to explain the context. Why?”
But in a separate post, Shivshankar continued to make his “point”. He evoked a 14-year-old news article headlined “WikiLeaks cable: Rahul Gandhi warned US of Hindu extremist threat” and “given this, we need to know what exactly transpired behind closed doors in these recent meetings.”
He also asked if Owaisi, Rahul, and the US diplomat’s “shared concerns” were the same.
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