It Was a ‘Private Visit’: Govt on EU Panel That Toured Kashmir

A team of 23 European MEPs had travelled to Kashmir in October on a two-day visit.

PM Narendra Modi met the members of European Parliament in New Delhi on 28 October.

(Photo: PTI)

A group of European parliamentarians who recently visited Kashmir were on a "private visit" to the country, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday, 20 November.

“A group of 27 members of European Parliament (MEPs)... paid a private visit to India from 28 October 2019 to 1 November 2019 at the invitation of International Institute for Nonaligned Studies, a Delhi based think tank.”

G Kishan Reddy, union minister of state for home

A copy of the government’s response.(Photo courtesy: Aditya Raj Kaul/altered by The Quint)

Reddy was responding to a set of questions that sought to know which institution organised and bore expenses of this Kashmir tour and whether the institution that organised it was working as a coordinating institution of the central government.

To another question whether the Union government has "distracted" from its policy of not allowing any external intervention on the Jammu-Kashmir issue, Reddy stated that India's consistent position has been that issues, if any, with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally.

"There is no scope for any third party role or mediation," the minister said.

In the first visit by a foreign delegation, a team of 23 MEPs travelled to Kashmir in October on a two-day visit to have a first-hand assessment of the situation after the state's special status was revoked in August by abrogating Article 370.

Of the 27 MPs who came to India, 23 went to Kashmir.