Progressive Commentary Hour - The new Kashmir Crisis and growing tensions between India and Pakistan

Farooq Kathwari is an internationally respected Kashmiri-American business man who has been the Chairman, President and CEO of furniture chain store Ethan Allen Interiors Inc, now with outlets across America, Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.  In 1985, at the age of 41, Farooq was selected as company President; he continues to hold this position and took the firm public in 1993. Aside from his business acumen and reputation for making Ethan Allen one of the most employee-friendly corporations in America, Mr. Kathwari has also been a leading thought-leader in international attempts to simmer India-Pakistan tensions over Kashmir and to restore the original international policies that provided Kashmiris a degree of autonomy. Recently, Kashmir has again reached global headlines after India's Hindu-Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed the India-controlled region into a military lockdown, rounding up 400 of Kashmir's democratically elected politicians, aides, officials and separatist intellectuals who continue to sit in Kashmir's overflowing prisons. Besides his diplomatic efforts, Farooq is also a founder of the Kashmir Study Group that created the Livingston Proposal as a peaceful initiative to bring stability to Kashmir's divisions. He is the chair of Refugees International and the co-Chair of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, started during the election of Trump to fight against hate speech and crimes targeting Jews and Muslims. Last week Farooq's personal autobiography, "Trailblazer: From the Mountains of Kashmir to the Summit of Global Business and Beyond," was published which includes the history and political background of the Kashmir crisis and this intermediary activities to bring sanity between India's and Pakistan's government.