The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress on Thursday frowned upon a proposal in Britain’s House of Commons to hold a debate on the state of human rights in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK).
“British Parliament’s decision to discuss Kashmir issue is condemnable. Can we take up Falkland Islands or Scotland issue for discussion in our parliament?” BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said in a post on microblogging site twitter.com.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi struck a similar note, saying that, “British parliament should focus on Scotland rather than Kashmir. We are able to handle our problem.”
Calling the Kashmir dispute a “threat” to regional and global peace, Liberal Democrat British MP David Ward informed the Backbench Business Committee that the new Indian government has been “quite aggressive in terms of its stance towards Kashmir” which was “opening up a whole new area of uncertainty”.
Ward secured a ‘General debate on political and humanitarian situation in Kashmir’ as part of the regular Backbench Business Committee application process in the House of Commons. Ward represents Bradford East in the House of Commons. Bradford city has the biggest Pakistani-origin population in Britain.