The Jammu and Kashmir floods have sparked a debate in UK’s Parliament on the political and humanitarian situation. The debate organised as part of the regular backbench Business Committee application process in the House of Commons had no material impact on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. During the debate in UK Parliament, a group of cross party MPs said a resolution to the Kashmir dispute was crucial for world peace and advocated ‘right to self-determination’ for Kashmiris a stance opposed by many others. New Delhi’s stand is clear that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter with Islamabad. A debate on Kashmir in the House of Commons is as good as Lok Sabha debating on the merits and demerits of Scottish independence or British stand on Falkland Islands. India should not react and take cognisance of the issue. Any reaction from Indian side will give the unwanted publicity and fame to the issue. Ironically UK has migratory population from Pakistan occupied Kashmir in certain areas and PoK has been populated by Punjabis and people from other parts of Pakistan. Thus debating on a issue as such has only local impact and won’t influence global political canvas when it comes to business and commerce. India should use diplomatic channel to convey its displeasure over the issue. Britain it seems has not historically come out of the ‘Raj syndrome’. Whatever the Commons debating is on secondhand issue of just one aspect of human rights violations but Kashmir is not just one issue based problem. It is a complicate web of religious, national and political issues. The Commons should know it is the same Indian Army which spearheading one of the largest humanitarian operations in Jammu and Kashmir by reaching out to lakhs of people marooned due to heavy rains and flash floods. It is the same army which has responded first to the call of common man when the State and local administration was mute witness to nature’s fury. New Delhi should simply ignore such issues in a mature way than to react and blow an irrelevant issue out of proportion.
