A US Congressman in the House of Representatives commended India for ending gender, caste and religious discrimination in Jammu and Kashmir by nullifying the special status of the state and also applauded the multiparty support that the Narendra Modi government received in Parliament over Kashmir.

In his year-end speech at the House, Joe Wilson, former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans and Republican Congressman from South Carolina, said on Friday, "The Indian Parliament, with multiparty support, voided the constitutional autonomy of Kashmir, supporting the Prime Minister's efforts to boost economic development,fight corruption, and end gender, caste, and religious discrimination."

Americans, he said, are grateful, as the world's oldest democracy, to see India succeed as the world's largest democracy.

The Independence Day address by Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi, Wilson said, was inspiring and it was "extraordinary" toattend the 'Howdy Modi' event in Houston where he was welcomed by PresidentDonald Trump.

"With 52,000 persons attending, it was the largestwelcome event in American history for a head of state," he said.

Recalling his family's 75-year-long association with India,Wilson told the House that he visited Mumbai this August to pay homage to allthe people who lost their lives in 26/11 Mumbai attacks and termed it as theIndian equivalent of the 9/11 mass murder.

Praising American troops, he said, "We will neverforget September the 11 in the global war on terrorism with the leadership ofPresident Donald Trump."