One of India’s diplomatic successes has been to persuade foreign dignitaries to hold their tongues about Kashmir. The territory, disputed between India and Pakistan for six decades, is by any standard a legitimate subject for international diplomacy. The dispute dates from the partition of India in 1947, when a Hindu prince aligned his Muslim-majority state with India, instead of allowing his subjects to join their co-religionists in Pakistan. A plebiscite demanded by the United Nations to decide the state’s future has never been held.

Such is India’s growing power and prestige that the US and Britain now keep silent on the issue for fear of angering New Delhi, which brooks no foreign interference in its security-led rule over restive Muslims in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The reasons are easy to see. India is a growing economic power, and everyone wants to be its friend and get a slice of the action.