Srinagar: A four-day visit by the 13-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has stirred a political debate.While the delegation met several influential people including J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and chief minister Omar Abdullah, the focus has shifted on those who the delegation didn’t meet.The multi-party delegation, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, was in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to “review border security, foreign policy-related issues and conditions in frontier areas”.“We are not here to look at domestic matters; that is not our mandate. We are the External Affairs Committee,” Tharoor told reporters. Tharoor explained that the delegation was assigned to assess issues related to Indo-Pak relations, Sino-Indian relations and the functioning of passport services in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.But as the visit continued, critics started to raise questions about whether the delegation tasked with understanding one of India’s most strategically sensitive regions could afford to hear only from those in positions of power, without listening to the grassroots politicians and common people. For many political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir, these exceptions became the defining feature of the visit.Government officials often point to improvements in security indicators, infrastructure development and administrative functioning. Political parties, rights activists and residents, meanwhile, continue to raise concerns about democratic representation, statehood and political engagement. Those concerns are unlikely to have been heard by a delegation that limited its meetings to official corridors.The ‘normalcy’ debateThe debate intensified after Tharoor described “encouraging progress towards normalcy” in the region after meeting Sinha. Critics – including those within his own party – argued that such conclusions require broader engagement with people outside of the government institutions.Leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) questioned why Tharoor and other members of the committee had not interacted with local party leaders or people during their stay.JKPCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma publicly challenged Tharoor’s optimistic assessment of the situation.According to Sharma, people in Kashmir had expected the senior Congress leader to step beyond official meetings and spend time understanding what residents and party workers were experiencing on the ground.Congress workers, Sharma pointed out, have spent years campaigning for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood after the region was reorganised into two union territories in 2019.According to Congress leaders in J&K, residents expected parliamentarians visiting the region to look beyond official presentations and engage with those living through the social and political realities post 2019.Speaking to The Wire, JKPCC president Tariq Hameed Karra said that the JKPCC had already expressed its views on Tharoor’s visit through the party’s chief spokesperson. “They are showcasing involvement to the world, but it has no tangible outcome. It’s a destination visit that is not open to public interaction. This committee is not related to common people; it has a defined path which it follows,” Karra said, while criticising the committee for not meeting local stakeholders.“I can’t see any activity that is related to ordinary people, because I have been part of such parliamentary committees. When I was MP from Srinagar, I ensured that the committee visiting the Valley during the 2014 floods met people and officials who could brief them about the ground situation. I designed the committee’s programme without involving top officials, and the interaction was more with the public than with bureaucrats. That helped us secure Rs 400 crore for the desiltation of choked water bodies,” he said.The parliamentary standing committee on external affairs in Kargil on June 24, 2026. Photo: X/@DIPR_KargilThe criticism reflects a broader concern that has accompanied many official and parliamentary visits to the region over the years – that delegations often leave carrying the government’s narrative, while remaining unaware of alternative viewpoints.Among the vocal critics was the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), once an ally of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir. PDP additional spokesperson Zuhaib Yousuf questioned what he saw as a contradiction in the committee’s approach. “If the panel was not mandated to assess domestic conditions,” he argued, “how could its chairman offer observations about normalcy in the Valley?“The truth can’t be stated from the corridors of power,” Yousuf told The Wire. “Meeting common people, civil society, and understanding realities would really help frame a better external and internal policy and also help put forth truth to the parliament, which means telling the truth to the people of India.”The Congress party’s national leadership too criticised Tharoor’s remarks. Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera said any assessment of Jammu and Kashmir would remain incomplete without hearing from a wider range of voices, including youth, businessmen, Kashmiri Pandits and civilians. “I fully believe that Dr Shashi Tharoor will meet everyone and then change his opinion, as he is an educated person,” Khera told ANI.A ‘familiar pattern’Srinagar-based legal expert and senior political commentator Sheikh Showkat said that the visit of the delegation appeared to fit into a “familiar pattern”.“So many committees visit Kashmir during the summer to avoid intense heatwaves,” Showkat told The Wire. “There doesn’t seem to be any serious effort to reach out to people. For that, they don’t need to come to Kashmir as most of the separatist leaders are in Tihar,” Showkat said, pointing to the fact that separatist leaders are also stakeholders who need to be involved.“The ones who remain here are the mainstream leaders who are more bothered about their own perks rather than pursuing any political agenda,” Showkat said.According to Showkat, official delegations frequently rely on government briefings and protocol-driven meetings, producing assessments that mirror the state’s understanding of events while offering little space for competing perspectives from the ground.For Jammu and Kashmir, the past two months have felt like a revolving door of parliamentary delegations.Since the conclusion of Parliament’s Budget Session on April 18, committee after committee has arrived in the union territory, reviewing everything from education and finance to urban development, social justice and internal security. The visits have been projected as opportunities for lawmakers to understand ground realities, assess government programmes and carry local concerns back to New Delhi. The external affairs committee was the seventh parliamentary panel to visit in the last three months – and reports suggest the petroleum and natural gas panel will soon be the eight.The controversy surrounding the latest parliamentarians’ visit touches on a larger question that has shaped Kashmir’s politics for decades: who gets to define the situation on the ground? That question, more than any official discussion held behind closed doors, may prove to be the lasting legacy of the committee’s visit.Junaid Dar is an independent journalist.