As a 27-member delegation of EU Parliamentarians arrived in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the BJP-led central government saying the members of the delegation suffer from "Islamophobia" and are "Nazi Lovers".
“Fantastic Choice of MEPs who suffer from a disease -Islamophobia (Nazi lovers)are going to Muslim majority Valley, sure people will welcome them by “Ware Paeth Khoshh Paeth”,” Owaisi tweeted.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under lockdown since August 5 when the Centre withdrew Kashmir’s special status by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and moved a separate bill to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories. Since then many mainstream political leaders of Kashmir, including three former chief ministers, have been detained and leaders of opposition parties from outside have not been permitted to enter the Valley.
This is the first time a foreign delegation is visiting the Valley to take stock of the situation. According to a report by the Indian Express, 22 of the EU MPs are members of far-right parties in their respective countries—such Marine Le Pen’s party in France, Brexit party in the United Kingdom and the Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) in Germany.
Most of them share a nationalistic, anti-immigrant stance whereas some have also reportedly used slurs with Nazi connotations.
For instance, EU MP Bogdan Rzonca, in October 2017, said on Twitter that he wondered “why there are so many Jews among abortionists despite the Holocaust.” His comment was seen by Poland’s Jewish community as one of the incidents of “rising anti-Semitism” and they wrote to the Polish President.
Germany’s AfD, an anti-establishment, far-right party, has also been criticised for some its individual members allegedly promoting neo-Nazi ideas and language, reports German national publication, Deutsch Welle.
Earlier, criticizing the government over the abrogation of Article 370, Owaisi said the ruling BJP had broken a constitutional promise made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He said, "The BJP has definitely lived up to electoral promise in their manifesto, but you have not lived up to your constitutional duties. You've indulged in breach of a constitutional promise."
Opposition leaders such as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BSP leader Mayawati, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and others have criticized the government’s move to invite the EU delegation to visit the restive Valley.
"MPs from Europe are welcome to go on a guided tour of Jammu and Kashmir while Indian MPs are banned and denied entry. There is something very wrong with that," Gandhi tweeted.
"...before sending EU MPs to Kashmir to assess the current situation there, it would have been better if the government had allowed the MPs of (our) country, especially opposition parties, to go there," Mayawati said on Twitter.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also took a dig at his party. He tweeted, "I am surprised that the MEA has arranged for European Union MPs, in their private capacity (not EU's official delegation), to visit Kashmir area of J&K. This is a perversion of our national policy. I urge the Government cancel this visit because it is immoral."
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