A British Conservative parliamentarian used a debate on Kashmir to compare the rights of Kashmiri people to ‘self-determination’ to last year’s Brexit referendum.
David Nuttall, the MP for Bury North, who called for the debate on Kashmir that took place on Thursday afternoon, said he wanted the people of Kashmir “to be given the right to decide their own future through self-determination”, a right that had been “historically exercised by the people of this country on the 23 June last year”.
Mr. Nuttall called for the U.K. government to raise “the escalation in violence and breaches of international human rights on the Indian side of the line of control in Kashmir” with the United Nations and to encourage India and Pakistan to commence negotiations on a long-term solution.
“The issue matters to thousands of my constituents who are of Pakistani and Kashmiri heritage… many of my constituents have families in Kashmir, and in some cases they have personally lost loved ones, or seen loved ones scarred for life as a result of violence,” he said.
This is the second time in the last three years that the House of Commons has held a debate on this issue. Several members raised the issue of the use of pellet guns by armed forces against civilians, and called for the government to encourage UN intervention on the matter, while others spoke in defence of the Indian government. “We should remember that the fundamental element of this is when Britain ceased to be the colonial power,” said Conservative MP Bob Blackman. “We should be clear that under international law, the whole of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.”
Responding on behalf of the U.K. government, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Alok Sharma said that the U.K., while “very concerned about violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir”, maintained its long-standing position, which was that both nations were “important friends of the U.K.” and that it would neither prescribe a solution nor act as a mediator. “It is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting solution taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people”.
