About us

Today's paper

Zeitgeist

Today's hot topics

Cameron and co tread carefully over Kashmir

It is clear that every minister accompanying David Cameron on his trip to India has been told not to talk about Kashmir

Don't mention Kashmir. That is the unequivocal message from every minister accompanying David Cameron on his trip to India.

The six cabinet ministers have been drilled by the Foreign Office, which was bruised after Labour ministers repeatedly slipped up on the acutely sensitive issue, to say absolutely nothing on Kashmir.

Vince Cable, the business secretary who is attuned to Indian sensitivities after visiting the country regularly since 1965, gave a taste of the new approach this morning. Asked about Kashmir, he said:

That is a dispute within the sub-continent that we are not expressing a view on.

The silence on Kashmir is a sign of the depth of preparations by Downing Street and the Foreign Office to ensure ministers do not cause offence to their Indian hosts. The prime minister, who wants to forge a new special relationship with one of the world's great booming economies, believes Labour harmed relations by lecturing India on Kashmir.

Labour's worst moment came in 1997 when Robin Cook, the late, former foreign secretary, offered to mediate between India and Pakistan. Delhi accused Britain of nursing "illusions of grandeur of its colonial past".

The British Raj hangs over every British official visit to India even though both sides say they have moved on. On this visit British ministers are saying in private that they must tread carefully over Kashmir because Britain is partly to blame for the dispute after British forces left the territory in haste at independence in 1947.

Some would dispute that claim and say that some responsibility lies with Hari Singh, the Maharajah of Kashmir. He had initially exercised his right, as ruler of a princely state, to be independent and be part of neither India nor Pakistan. When war broke out he called in the India army. Delhi said help would only be sent if Kashmir became part of India.

While the decisions of 1947 will be disputed for decades, all sides agree that Britain needs to tread carefully. Harsh V Pant, an academic at King's College London, underlines this point in the Times of India this morning. He says David Miliband caused great offence when he said that resolving the Kashmir dispute was essential to dealing with extremism in south Asia:

Miliband not only revealed his fundamental ignorance about the regional issues but also ended up demolishing whatever little credibility Britain had in India.

Cameron has clearly heeded such advice. But has he gone too far the other way and neglected the feelings of Pakistan?

Downing Street wants this trip to show that India can be treated as a normal trading partner, with tricky issues around security moved onto a separate track. But Pakistan – and therefore Kashmir – are never far away.

One of the biggest trade announcements of the trip – a relaxation of licence rules to allow the export of civil nuclear technology and expertise to India – may upset New Delhi's nuclear neighbour. Islamabad was certainly angry this morning when Cameron told an audience of Indian business leaders that elements of the Pakistan state are promoting the export of terrorism abroad.

Labour may have been insensitive about Kashmir and Cameron has good reason to want to treat India as a normal trading partner. But then he is not visiting India, as Tony Blair did in January 2002, when it is on the verge of nuclear war with Pakistan.

The cause of that dispute? Terrorists had attacked the Indian parliament the month before. The terrorists, similar to those groups named today by Cameron for launching the 2008 attack on Mumbai, were linked to the Kashmir dispute and New Delhi blamed Islamabad for sanctioning the parliament attack.

Cameron says he wants to treat India and Pakistan on separate tracks. His criticism of Pakistan, at the start of a trade trip devoted entirely to India, shows that is an ambitious aim 63 years after Britain gave birth to the two independent neighbours.