As the world prepares for arguably the biggest showdown of the year, Mr. Barack Obama mentioned Kashmir in one of his speeches with less than 24 hours to the first polling booth opening. Kocuthresiamma at Pareltank voices a few concerns of the sceptic:

Why should Kashmir figure in Obama’s election speech? Don’t know how Am-Indians feel about it but we out here are getting a little jittery. The Government at the Centre, still in the grip of India – America bhai bhai euphoria, is playing it down as the the product of the high excitement on the eve of the elections. But why drag Kashmir in? and speak of it in the same breath as Afghanistan? Is his understanding of the issue flawed? The BJP has started going hammer and tongs after Obama. The Kashmiri separatist groups are ecstatic.

There might be a potboiler in that post there, since the author has called for doing away with political correctness on his comment space. Also, Palash posts a copy of an article by C Raja Mohan written to the editor of the Indian Express:

Put simply, the Obama thesis says: the sources of Afghan instability are in Pakistan; those in turn are linked to Islamabad’s conflict with New Delhi, at the heart of which is Jammu and Kashmir.
For months now, New Delhi has been assessing Obama’s seeming hard-line towards Pakistan, including a threat to bomb terrorist bases there if Islamabad failed to act against the al-Qaida and the Taliban. India, however, has paid less attention to the carrot
Obama was offering Pakistan—American activism on Kashmir in return for credible cooperation in Afghanistan.

You can catch more details of the speech and the details there. Fingers crossed! :)