India allows far-right MEPs to visit Kashmir, as lockdown for locals continues

A group of mostly right-wing MEPs toured Kashmir on Tuesday as India opened up the restive region to a foreign delegation for the first time since withdrawing its semi-autonomous status in early August.

The visit of 27 members of the European Parliament has sparked a great deal of controversy among opposition parties here, many of whom have been denied permission to conduct their own fact-finding missions to Srinagar and other parts of the Indian-administered Kashmir valley.

Authorities in Delhi have also blocked access to Kashmir for UN special rapporteurs, foreign journalists and diplomats and US congressmen and women since the 5 August overhaul of the Muslim-majority region’s constitutional rights.

Sweeping curfews and a communications blockade continue in much of the valley, though restrictions have been lifted across some regions of the wider Jammu & Kashmir state that are seen as more sympathetic to the government.

The MEPs’ visit was preceded by clashes between stone-throwing protesters and government forces, who fired tear gas shells and shotgun pellets, in at least 40 locations.

The politicians arrived in Srinagar, the regional capital, shortly after noon, and were driven past closed shops and through empty streets in a procession of black 4x4 vehicles, accompanied by a large security forces escort.

Their visit would take them to a military base as well as meetings with businessmen and members of local civil society groups, government officials told reporters.

The EU has distanced itself from the MEPs’ visit, with sources quoted as saying they do so in a private capacity, and the right-wing political make-up of the delegation has drawn criticism from Indian opposition groups.

The 27 includes Nathan Gill, David Richard Bull, Alexandra Philips and James Wells from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, six MEPs from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (formerly National Front), two from Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland and a Polish MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki, who was sacked as an EU vice-president in 2018 for using an insult with Nazi connotations.

The group met with prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday, where he told them he hoped their visit would give a clear view of the government’s development priorities for Kashmir.

After the meeting, the British MEP Bill Newton Dunn - the only Lib Dem on the trip - said the parliamentarians did not ask Mr Modi about Kashmir directly, and instead discussed Mr Modi’s “achievements since 2014 and his ambitious plans for the future, including Indian problems, and also climate change and pollution”.

Sitaram Yechury, a prominent leader of the opposition CPM party in India, tweeted that “this unofficial group is overwhelmingly from ultra-right wing pro-fascist parties having relations with [Modi’s] BJP. This explains why our MPs aren’t allowed but Modi welcomes them.”

Rahul Gandhi, of the Congress party, tweeted: “MPs from Europe are welcome to go on a guided tour of Jammu & (hash)Kashmir while Indian MPs are banned & denied entry. There is something very wrong with that.”