British Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer was told by 50 parliamentarians of Labour Party that his recent comments on Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) were unacceptable and historically wrong and threatened him with open defiance if he did not clarify his position, a local news outlet reported on Friday.
Last week, after a call with Labour Friends of India executives last week, Starmer had said, “We must not allow issues of the sub-continent to divide communities here. Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament, and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully.” His comments had drawn criticism from politicians and activists who said that he had violated the party’s policy and had ignored the international nature of the dispute.
Reportedly, during his meeting with his party’s parliamentarians on Thursday, the Labour leader was told that the statements he made after meeting with Indian lobbyists were completely unacceptable in contradiction to human rights and the party’s position on the Kashmir dispute and had been seen by thousands of party supporters as insulting and an effort at appeasement of Narendra Modi-led fascism.
After the meeting, the report added, the British opposition leader agreed to issue a statement to ease the feeling of outrange within 1.5 million British Kashmiris and the Pakistani community.
Separately, leftist elements within the party and activists have also voiced their opposition to the Labour leader’s statements. The Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) of MPs on the left of the party released a statement expressing “solidarity with the people of Kashmir in their struggle against the world’s largest military occupation” while stressing the group’s “internationalism acknowledges the role of British colonial injustices and the inalienable nature of universal human rights”.
An open letter organised by Momentum Internationalists was also signed by hundreds of members that condemns the position expressed by Starmer. Their statement explicitly stated that the activists were “disturbed” by the comments, which were “in defiance of party policy”. It called on the new leader to “respect our democracy and conference policy”.
