The visit of a foreign delegation to the state, where entry of both Indian and foreign media is barred, exposes the administration’s double standards.
Zafar Aafaq | Clarion India
Indian government’s decision to grant access and facilitate a delegation of European Union parliamentarians to visit Kashmir raised many an eyebrow as the region is kept out of bonds for politicians of Opposition parties, foreign journalists, and international observers for months despite repeated request to lift the restriction.
Former minister and a senior leader of the Congress, Jairam Ramesh, slammed the BJP led NDA Government for granting access to the delegation terming it an “outright insult” to the democratic set-up of county.
“When Indian political leaders have been prevented from meeting the people of Jammu & Kashmir, what possessed the great chest-beating champion of nationalism to allow European politicians to visit J&K. This is an outright insult to India’s own Parliament and our democracy!” Reads a tweet by Ramesh.
Even Subramaniam Swami, the rightwing thinker and Rajya Sabha member, who is a staunch supporter of the ruling dispensation, took a dig at the decision of the government and called the visit “immoral”. He was surprised to see that the Ministry of External Affairs has arranged this “unofficial” Kashmir visit. “This is a perversion of our national policy. I urge the government to cancel this visit because it is immoral,” he tweeted.
Reportedly, the European Union office in New Delhi has not been informed about this delegation visiting Kashmir.
The 30-member delegation, which is visiting Kashmir tomorrow (Tuesday), will be the first foreign delegation to be allowed to visit Kashmir since the 5th of August when the Indian government stripped Kashmir of its special constitution protection and clamped an unprecedented lockdown on the region.
Soon after, authorities imposed a digital siege by snapping phone, cell and internet services. The restrictions made it almost impossible for the outside world to get an inkling of what is happening inside the beleaguered sate. During this period, the police launched a massive crackdown on the Kashmiris, detaining thousands, including politicians, civil society members, and even children as young as nine years old. Most of them are still languishing in jails after 80 days of worst lockdown. The losses caused to the local economy by the indefinite lockdown runs into billions of rupees.
The Prime Minister’s the Office (PMO) put out a statement which said that the government hopes the visit will give the delegation a clear view of “development and governance priorities of the region”. The visit is being touted as unofficial and in the personal capacity of delegation members even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met them on Monday morning in New Delhi and briefed them on the state’s perspective to the situation in Kashmir.
The visit comes a week after lawmakers in the United States expressed their concern over the situation in Kashmir at a Congressional hearing in Washington DC on the human rights situation in South Asia. The lawmakers urged India to lift restrictions on the movement of the people, communications, and release political leaders under detention. Since the August 5 decision, Kashmir has drawn significant global attention.
Prominent media outlets like the New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and TRT World have covered the Kashmir situation, in the aftermath of the government’s arbitrary move, in great detail despite the ban on foreign journalists to travel to Kashmir.
India has turned down requests from the US State Department to send a delegation to Kashmir alleging Kashmir coverage in the liberal press as biased. External Affairs Minister conducted several meetings with lawmakers in the US explaining India’s reasons for taking controversial decisions on Kashmir.
In the light of all these, the decision to grant access to this delegation seems to be an attempt at damage control. However, observers keeping a close watch on Kashmir pointed out that a majority of the members of the delegation belong to rightwing parties in their respective countries in Europe. “Barring three, all MPs belong to the far-right parties of their countries. All six French MPs are from Le Pen’s National Front, six Polish MPs are from ruling far-right party, four British MPs are from Brexit Party,” The Washington Post correspondent in India, Niha Masih, wrote on Twitter.
Sitaram Yechury, leader of the Communist Party of India, reacted strongly saying: “This unofficial group is overwhelmingly from ultra-right-wing pro-fascist parties having relations with BJP. This explains why our MPs aren’t allowed but Modi welcomes them. 3 ex-CMs and 1000s others are jailed & this group of MEPs is preferred over Indian political parties?”
