SRINAGAR : A delegation of 27 Members of the European Parliament landed at Srinagar airport in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to assess the “situation” in the state. This is the first time the government has allowed a foreign delegation to visit J&K after it stripped the state of its special status under Article 370 on August 5. Earlier, a US Congressman was denied permission to visit the state by the government.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra became the latest Opposition leader to criticise the Centre for allowing the delegation to visit the state but not permitting Indian leaders to move out of Srinagar airport. She called it “unique nationalism”.
The delegation had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence Monday, and was briefed separately by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Sources in the European Union mission in New Delhi told The Indian Express the MEPs were not an official delegation of the EU, and were travelling in their private capacity.
Interestingly, 22 of the 27 MPs represent the right-wing or far-right parties in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. They are broadly anti-immigration in Italy, in favour of Brexit in the UK, and against migration and belong to Marine Le Pen’s party in France, and the far-right and anti-establishment Alternative für Deutschland in Germany.
There is something very wrong with that: Rahul Gandhi on EU leaders’ J&K visit
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi yesterday criticised the government for allowing the MEPs to visit Jammu and Kashmir. “MPs from Europe are welcome to go on a guided tour of Jammu & Kashmir while Indian MPs are banned & denied entry. There is something very wrong with that,” Gandhi said in a tweet.
‘We told them everything’: Group of Kashmiris who met MEPs
A group of Kashmiri politicians, businessmen and civil society members met the MEPs at a lunch hosted by NSA Doval in New Delhi on Monday. In the group were PDP’s Muzaffar Hussain Beig, former Congress legislator Usman Majeed and BJP’s Khalid Jehangir.
“We have to tell the story of our pain,” Beig told The Indian Express. “I was not representing PDP (there). I was invited in individual capacity.”
Majeed said: “We discussed the current situation in Kashmir and nothing else. We told them why people are angry. We told them everything. They will see it themselves tomorrow.” He too said he was there as “an individual” and not as a Congress leader.
