J&K rights issues have to be settled in India only: EU

New Delhi: The issues of alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir should be settled by Indian institutions, the European Union said in remarks that come against the backdrop of Pakistan’s repeated attempts to internationalise the Kashmir conflict. The EU, however, chided India for blocking foreign funding to several NGOs.

Chairperson of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, David McAllister, said the panel was working on a report on the EU’s political ties with India.

According to news agency reports, Mr McAllister, leading a delegation of the European Parliament to India, called the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir a “very sensitive” issue, saying India suffered a lot from terrorism.

“The reports of human rights violations have to be settled by India’s domestic institutions,” the head of the powerful committee said.

Referring to the Indian government refusing to renew the foreign funding licences of around 20,000 NGOs, a top committee member, Preda Cristian Dan, said the crackdown on NGOs dealing with human rights issues was unacceptable.

He said some EU member countries also donated money to NGOs for promoting human rights, and wondered why authorities in some countries restricted their activities.

“We do not understand why the government wants to block activities of organisations dealing with human rights. This is unacceptable,” Mr Dan was quoted as saying. He said the problems of NGOs working for the rights of children and women in India would be flagged by the delegation during its meeting with women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi.

Politicians often seek to block activities of organisations dealing with terrorists, Mr Dan commented, as he criticised attempts to block funding to NGOs. 

The Indian government has cancelled the licences of several NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), including that of Greenpeace India, and put under others like the Ford Foundation under “prior permission category”. FCRA licences of NGOs run by prominent activists like Teesta Setalvad and Shabnam Hashmi have also been cancelled, according to news agency reports.

While talking about the Kashmir issue, McAllister also recalled the visit of EU Foreign Affairs Committee to “both sides” of Kashmir in 2003-04.

He said the primary aim of the visit was to understand issues to finalise the report which will also include various dimension of defence and security ties between the two sides.

Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India, said the dates for the next EU-India summit were being finalised and indicated that it may take place here around September.

Calling India a major global player, McAllister also favoured deeper EU-India defence and security cooperation. He particularly hailed the Indian Navy as a major naval force globally.

Referring to Brexit, he said it was a “wake up call” for all EU member nations and noted that efforts were underway to facilitate Britain’s exit from the grouping as early as possible.

Coming down hard on Russia for the annexation of Crimea, he said it should be lesson for all countries but added that EU understood India’s ties with Moscow.

The support of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) is required for all major international partnership and cooperation agreements signed by the EU.

The delegation will hold talks with a number of Union Ministers, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Vice Chairman of NITI Ayog Arvind Panagariya and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan among others.

The talks with Indian leaders would range from regional security and counter-terrorism to fight against piracy, cyber-security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.