AJK PM assails UK Labour Party chief for pro-India remarks

Recent statement of Keir Starm after meeting Indian lobby is a reflection of odious hypocrisy, says Raja Farooq Haider

MUZAFFARABAD: Taking strong exception to a recent pro-India statement of Sir Keir Starmer, the new leader of UK’s Labour Party, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has made it clear that the internationally recognised Kashmir issue could not be brushed aside to please any certain group, community or nation.

“The recent statement of Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on Kashmir after meeting Indian lobby is a reflection of odious hypocrisy because it leaves out historical facts, UN Security Council resolutions, international laws and ethicality,” said Haider while talking to reporters in Muzaffarabad on Sunday.



After a meeting with Labour Friends of India on April 30, Sir Starmer had said: "We must not allow issues of the subcontinent to divide communities here [UK]. Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully. Labour is an internationalist party and stands for the defence of human rights everywhere."

He had also said that a Labour government under his leadership would be determined to build even stronger business links with India and to cooperate on the global stage on issues such as climate change.

“I look forward to meeting the Indian High Commissioner in due course to open a renewed dialogue between the Labour Party and the people of India,” Starmer had said.

In his response, the AJK premier made it clear that neither did the Kashmiris have any personal enmity with the people of India nor did they ever want any other country or nation to develop and practice the same.



However, since 1947 the Kashmiris had been at war with the tyrannical regimes in New Delhi for ruthlessly trying to suppress their legitimate demand for the right to self-determination by employing brute force and other nefarious methods, he added.

“And when leaders of a country that brands itself as the mother of parliamentary democracy tend to turn a blind eye towards suppression of democratic values and rights in Occupied Kashmir just to strengthen their illegal occupation of the territory, it's appalling.”

'Unresolved Kashmir issue  legacy of British rule'

The AJK prime minister reminded Starmer that the unresolved Kashmir issue was the legacy of the British rule in the subcontinent and thus Britain, as a state, is under a moral obligation to get it settled in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the inhabitants of the disputed territory for a durable peace across the globe, including Britain.

He said, “Numerous UN Security Council resolutions, where India itself took the issue, bear testimony to the fact that Kashmir is an internationally acknowledged issue of self-determination of an entire nation rather than a bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan.”

Haider further pointed out that India had committed naked aggression on the people of Occupied Kashmir by first revoking the special status of their motherland on August 5 last year and then putting the entire territory under lockdown and communication blackout.

“There is a marked difference between effecting any constitutional amendment for domestic consumption and amendments to unlawfully alter the status and demography of an internationally acknowledged disputed territory,” said the AJK premier while referring to Articles 35-A and 370 respectively of Indian constitution and the domicile law of Occupied Kashmir.



Haider called upon Starmer to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn by standing by the truth and justice instead of defending the reign of terror let loose in Occupied Kashmir as well as Hindu supremacy and intolerance being brazenly practised in India at the behest of the fascist BJP government.

He also reminded the new leader that almost all Britain-based Pakistanis and Kashmiris had overwhelmingly supported and voted Labour Party in the recent elections for its just and principled stance on Kashmir issue and human rights violations in the disputed territory.

“The volte-face on Kashmir to please Indian lobby is deplorable and unacceptable and should, therefore, be done away with without more ado.”