Equating the two-day Kashmir trip by the European Union MPs with a “familiarisation visit”, the Centre on Thursday sought to downplay the controversy over the tour organizer being a
private international lobbyist saying such delegations do not necessarily have to come through official channels.
Asserting this point here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “The important point was whether such an engagement serves larger national interests. The visit was not at all internationalisation of Kashmir issue. The views of MEPs reflected their understanding of ground realities and threat of terrorism in Kashmir.”
Commenting on the raging controversy about the nature of the visit and its funding for the first time, the ministry also said the tour was not at all internationalisation of the issue. Moreover, the visit was not ceding of ground on Kashmir, he said.
This counter came after BJP’s NDA allies Shiv Sena and JD-U on Wednesday put the government in a spot by joining the Opposition ranks in questioning the move to send the EU delegation to Kashmir. Sena had taken exception
saying Kashmir was “not an international issue”.
Moreover, the Congress had demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the foreign MPs’ visit terming it as the “biggest diplomatic blunder” in India’s history. And Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary even wrote to the PM suggesting him to send an all-party delegation to Kashmir to assess the situation there.
The External Affairs Ministry said the important point was whether such an engagement serves larger national interests. In the first visit by a foreign delegation, a team of 23 MPs travelled to Kashmir on Tuesday on a two-day trip to have a first-hand assessment of the situation after the state’s special status was revoked in August by abrogating provisions of Article 370.
“We feel that such exchanges are part of people-to-people contacts,” Kumar said adding the visit was not at all internationalisation of Kashmir issue.
Kumar also asserted that the views of MEPs reflected their understanding of ground realities and threat of terrorism in Kashmir.
On Wednesday, a section of the visiting MPs also said the government should allow the country’s own Opposition parliamentarians to visit the state. Nicolaus Fest, who is part of the delegation, said, “I think if you let in European Union parliamentarians, you should also let in Opposition politicians from India. There is some kind of disbalance, the Government should somehow address it.”
But the delegation MPs took exception to them being billed as “fascists” and called the media coverage on Kashmir “biased”.
Questions have also been raised about the funding of the tour of the visitors and allegations leveled that the NGO had organized it and promised the MPs a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.