With reports that Pakistan gave ₹30 lakh to British parliamentary panel when they visited Pakistan, former Indian Envoy to the UK, Ruchi Ghanashyam has said that, it “establishes” the links between the Pakistan government and the British parliament panel.
High Commissioner Ghanashyam said, “I have always seen the APPG Kashmir as being partisan and motivated in their approach. Their links to the establishment in Islamabad, as brought out by your story, would seem to explain their uncritical acceptance of the Pakistani narrative of the situation in POK.”
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir is led by Labour MP Debbie Abrahams. Abraham back in February had landed in the Delhi International airport and was asked to leave with her visa getting nullified.
She had visited Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir the same month.
According to the Ambassador, “The very existence of an APPG on Kashmir is questionable. MP Debbie Abrahams had arrived in India without a visa and had been turned back as there is no visa on arrival agreement with the UK. Unfortunately, it was used to create a false controversy.”
APPG on Kashmir had received GBP 31,501- 33,000 for Pakistan visit from 18 to 22 February 2020.
India had issued Labour MP Debbie Abraham an e-business visa on 7 October 2019 but the visa was revoked on 14 February 2020 due to her “activities which went against India’s national interest”.
The Labour MP was also given intimation on their termination of her visa on the same day but she still chose to travel to India that led to her deportation.
When National Elections were being held in the UK the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn had taken an anti-Hindu and anti-Kashmir stand.
Hindus in the UK traditionally voted labour but Corbyn’s vitriolic speeches against Hindus and his support of Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, alienated the entire community and gave the conservatives’ under Prime Minister Boris Johnson victory by a huge margin.