On Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs clarified that the MEA is not ‘involved with coordinating the visit of 23 European MPs’. The MPs incidentally met PM Modi, Vice President Naidu and were hosted for meals by the NSA and MEA.
Who organised the visit?
The visit was ostensibly arranged by the Institute of for Non-Aligned Studies. The invitation was sent by a woman called Madi Sharma.
Her invitation talked about “a prestigious VIP meeting with the Prime Minister of India, His Excellency Narendra Modi”. The letter entailed the details of the visit as “The meeting with the Prime Minister is scheduled for the 28th of October, with a visit to Kashmir on 29th and a press conference on 30th.”
The International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies, founded by Dr. Govind Narain Srivastava in 1980, claims to have “provided a platform to voice the viewpoint of billions of people of the third world” on its website as their mission statement.
Hitting back at the opposition over its criticism of the government for EU delegation's visit to Kashmir, the BJP said on Tuesday that nobody has stopped leaders of the Congress and other parties from travelling to the Valley as the situation there has "normalised".
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters that the opposition's "frustration" over the visit of European Union MPs to Kashmir is borne out of the failure of its "propaganda about the situation" there.
"Who has stopped Congress leaders from going to the state when the situation has normalised. Rahul Gandhi can go there. If any leader wants to go, there is no problem.
He can take a flight. If some parliamentarians of the European Union are going, it is good as we have nothing to hide," he said. Hussain also took a swipe at AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, saying he looks at every issue through the prism of "Hindu-Muslim".
Questioning the choice of MPs in the delegation, Owaisi had said it was not an official visit by the EU members and that most of parliamentarians visiting the valley suffer from "Islamophobia".
The BJP spokesperson said when the government did not earlier allow visits by outsiders, then the opposition criticised it for denying the permission and now it is still attacking the Centre for allowing the visit.
The Congress on Tuesday stepped up its attack on the BJP government for allowing European Union MPs to visit Kashmir, while denying permission to Indian parliamentarians, and termed it a "national embarrassment".
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the BJP's nationalism is strange, allowing European MPs to visit and interfere in Kashmir while Indian MPs are sent back from the airport.
