‘Attempt At Votebank Pandering’: India Slams UK’s Labour Party For Resolution Backing Kashmiri Referendum And Separatism

A resolution on Kashmir which says that the region should be given the right to self-determination, and that Kashmiris “fighting against occupation” must be supported, has been carried at the Labour party conference in Brighton, United Kingdom, reports The Times of India.

India has come down heavily against this development, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar saying, “We regret these uninformed and unfounded positions... Clearly, it’s an attempt at pandering to votebank interests. There is no question of engaging with the Labour party or its representatives on this issue.”

Members of the British Indian community are also not pleased with the contents of the resolution, with organisations like the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) take a strong stand against the move. The president of the OFBJP Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat said this motion passed by the Labour party meant that Indian diaspora voters will not support them during the next general elections.

A former Labour leader himself claimed that the party had been taken over by extremists. Former chair of Labour’s Indian Community Engagement Forum said that Labour had been “hijacked by a coalition of left extremists and jihadi sympathisers”