NEW DELHI, 17 March 2008 — India yesterday rejected the demand of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) that the Kashmir problem be resolved according to UN resolutions and regretted the Muslim body discussing the issue .

“We note with regret,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said at a news conference, “that the OIC has once again chosen to comment upon Jammu and Kashmir and issues internal to India.” “The OIC has no locus standi in matters concerning India’s internal affairs, including Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India,” he said. “We strongly reject all such comments,” the spokesperson said.

In Dakar, Senegal OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Friday reiterated the 57-member group’s complete and unflinching support to what he described as the just cause of Kashmir.

Speaking at a meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, Ihsanoglu requested member states, especially those with good relations with India, to use their influence to improve the condition of Kashmiris in Kashmir. “The question of Jammu and Kashmir has been one of the oldest unresolved issues on the agenda of the OIC,” he said. The meeting reaffirmed the long-standing position of the OIC in support of the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination, the protection of their human rights and settlement of the dispute in accordance with relevant OIC and UN Security Council resolutions.

Nuclear Issue

Meanwhile on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to update the government’s leftist allies today on the country’s negotiations with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the India-specific safeguards agreement.

With the leftist parties having become more vocal over the past week against the deal, today’s meeting of the UPA-Left Joint Committee is viewed as crucial.

Mukherjee is also expected to travel to United States on March 23 to co-chair the Indo-US Joint Commission meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Mukherjee is expected to hand her a copy of the draft of the safeguards agreement.

Notwithstanding the ominous signals from the left about their withdrawing support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance if it goes ahead with the nuclear deal, Mukherjee is hopeful of today’s meeting going well. “I am hopeful of sorting out the issue (with the left),” he said.

With the leftists “being friends,” the meeting is expected to be a “smooth” affair. “We have every reason to expect that the meeting will go through smoothly. We are not panicky. After all they (leftists) are our friends,” All India Congress Committee (AICC) media department chairman M. Veerappa Moily said.

Besides, with just about a year left before the scheduled parliamentary elections, there is no reason for Congress to be apprehensive about the left now, Moily said. “When we could manage four years, managing one more year is not a problem,” he said.

Describing the deal as “anchored in the Hyde Act,” which had conditions that were against the interests of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury said: “The government will have to move forward only on the basis of the findings of this committee. If the committee says that the deal is wrong, then it should be dropped.”

Suggesting that only the government’s obsession with the deal would lead to its fall, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said: “If the government falls, it won’t be because of us.” The leftist allies support of the UPA government from outside.