Say media coverage biased; JD(U) raps Govt for allowing foreign team to visit J&K
The European Union (EU) delegation of parliamentarians on Wednesday termed the abrogation of special status to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 an “internal issue of India” and the media coverage on the troubled State “biased” even as they asserted they stood by the country in its fight against terrorism.
However, the high-profile visit did not go as the Government would have liked as it was in controversy over the involvement of a private lobbyist and the Opposition going hard against the ruling dispensation for allowing the foreign delegation while stopping the country’s own MPs from visiting the State to take stock of the ground situation there.
To add to the Government’s discomfort, after Shiv Sena another BJP partner, 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”.
The Congress 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 Chowdhury even wrote to the PM suggesting him to send an all-party delegation to Kashmir to assess the situation there.
This, even as 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 address it.”
However the EU MPs took exception to them being billed as “fascists” and called the media coverage on Kashmir “biased”.
Thierry Mariani, a member of the Rassemblement National party in France, told the media in Srinagar, “Terrorists can destroy a country. I have been to Afghanistan and Syria and I have seen what terrorism has done. We stand with India in its fight against terrorism.”
He also said, “By calling us fascists, our image has been tarnished. It’s better that one should know about us properly before tarnishing our image.”
Ryszard Czarnecki from Poland said the international media coverage on Kashmir seems biased. “Once we go back to our countries, we will inform them of what we saw,” the leader from the Prawoi Sprawiedliwosc party said.
Henri Malosse from France said, “If we talk about Article 370, it is India’s internal matter. What concerns us is terrorism which is a global menace and we should stand with India in fighting it.” Malosse is a former president of the European Economic and Social Committee.
Newton Dunn from the Liberal Democrat party in the UK described the visit as an “eye-opener.” He said, “We belong to a place in Europe which is peaceful after years of fighting. And we want to see India becoming the most peaceful country in the world. And for that we need to stand by India in its fight against global terrorism. This visit has been an eye-opener and we would definitely advocate what we have seen on ground zero.”
The role of the international Indian-origin lobbyist came to the fore from the letter she wrote to one of the British Conservative Party MPs Chris Davies. Then again of the 27 MPs originally scheduled to visit the State backed out.
The 23-member delegation, which ended its two-day visit to the State on Wednesday, condemned the killing of five migrant labourers from West Bengal by terrorists in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Questions have also been raised about the funding of the tour of the visitors and allegations leveled that an NGO had organised it and promised the MPs a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.