100 Indo-British bodies slam Corbyn’s K-stance

London, October 14 

Over 100 British-Indian professional and community organisations on Monday wrote to the UK Opposition Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to condemn the Labour Party’s stance on Kashmir in the wake of the Indian government revoking J&K’s special status. 

The Labour Party on September 25 passed an emergency motion on Kashmir calling for party leader Corbyn to seek international observers to “enter” the region and demand the right of self-determination for its people, drawing criticism from Indian diaspora representatives who described it as “ill conceived” and “misinformed”.

A cross-section of British-Indian bodies, including the Indian Professionals Forum, Indian National Students Association, Hindu Council UK as well as temple bodies and community representatives, added their name to a joint letter which accuses Corbyn of bringing an India-Pakistan bilateral affair into the domestic politics of the UK by adopting a “divisive” emergency motion that calls for international intervention in the region.

  “We are writing collectively, as British-Indian community organisations, to express our deep dismay that Her Majesty’s Opposition has abandoned a long-standing cross-party position on Kashmir as a strictly bilateral matter between India and Pakistan, and in doing so, sown the seeds of community disharmony in the UK,” the letter notes. — PTI