Most of the European Union (EU) delegation which is set to visit Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) today in a personal capacity and not as an official EU delegation, are affiliated to extreme right-wing parties including France’s Rassemblement National and Brexit party.
22-members out of the 28 delegation are right-wing politicians in their home countries. The parties which these politicians are affiliated with are known for their Islamophobic statements and anti-immigrant stance, Telegraph India reported.
Six members from the European MPs belong to France’s far-right Rassemblement party, five from the Poland's far-right Prawo i Sprawiedliwo??, four from the UK’s right-wing Brexit Party. While, two each belong from Italy’s far-right Lega Party and Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland as well as members of the Czech Republic's centre-Right KDU-?SL, Belgium’s right-wing Vlaams Belang and Spain’s far-Right VOX.
Interesting facts about the EU MPs visiting Kashmir tomorrow. My colleagues @KhyatiRajvanshi and @SreenivasanJain report that 22 out of the 27 MPs are affiliated to European far right parties including Le Pen’s party and the Brexit party.
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) October 28, 2019
There is also one MP from Britain’s Liberal Democrats, a former prime minister is from Italy's Forza Italia and another from the centre-Left Partito Democratico. All these members will be visitng IoK today to review the situation there following India's decison to revoke Article 37 from its constitution. They will meet with government officials and residents.
Both are important for different reasons. That your government is choosing to give access to foreign Islamophobes is clear indication of what its motives are. Please just call a spade a spade. https://t.co/US3pVeL07a
— Arif Rafiq (@ArifCRafiq) October 28, 2019
On Sunday, the EU delegation arrived in India and also met PM Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Dova. They were briefed about the issue of Kashmir and the situation there following the abrogation of the article.
The EU delegation will be the first to visit the valley as New Delhi has so far denied permission to foreign journalists to cover the situation in Kashmir after the August 5.