The MEPs take a ride on Dal Lake in Srinagar ( Photo: PTI )
NEW DELHI – Demanding answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress on Wednesday termed the EU MPs visit to Kashmir the “biggest diplomatic blunder” in India’s history and said the government had deliberately internationalised the issue.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP government continues to humiliate India on a global scale by allowing internationalisation of the Kashmir issue in violation of the time-tested policy that it is India’s internal matter.
“The truth is that this is the biggest diplomatic blunder in India’s history. The Modi government has deliberately internationalised the Kashmir issue, violating our time tested policy of Kashmir being an internal matter’ of India,” he told reporters.
A delegation of 23 EU MPs on Wednesday ended a two-day visit aimed at a first-hand assessment of the ground situation in Kashmir after the revocation of the state’s special status.
“The Modi government has committed grave sacrilege by introducing a third party to assess the ground situation in Kashmir and that also through an unknown think tank. By doing so, the government has caused an affront to India’s sovereign right over Jammu and Kashmir,” the Congress leader said.
“We call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come forward and answer these issues of challenging India’s sovereignty, national security and insult of India’s Parliament,” Surjewala said.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena on Wednesday took strong objection to the visit by a delegation of European Union (EU) MPs to Kashmir, asserting it is “not an international issue”.
Isn’t the EU delegation’s visit an “external invasion” of India’s independence and sovereignty? an editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ wondered, while questioning the rationale behind allowing the foreign team to visit Jammu and Kashmir.
When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was still criticised for taking the issue to the United Nations (UN), why were the EU parliamentarians allowed to visit Kashmir? it sought to know.
The Sena, which is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra, however, praised the Modi government for having won the fight against “Pakistan-sponsored terrorism” by revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370.
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