SRINAGAR: Outside the United Nations set-up, India and Pakistan have a new platform to outwit each other – the House of Commons in London. Several politicians having roots in India and Pakistan were elected to the House of Commons, a parliament that ruled the subcontinent till 1947. There are a few elected parliamentarians who have origins in Mirpur, on the other side of the Line of Control.
Kashmir has remained a key tension in British politics. The 2019 election looked as if it was an election in India or Pakistan. Right now most of the reportage emerging on the polls across the country has focused on how the ruling Labour Party has started changing its policy towards a better relationship with India after reworking its Kashmir stand. Labour Party won 412 seats in the 650-seat house.
Indian Diaspora
The general election saw the victory of a record number of 29 MPs of Indian descent. Most of them were elected on the ruling Labour Party mandate. These include Lisa Nandy, Nadia Whittome, Navendu Mishra, Preet Gill, Valerie Vaz, Seema Malhotra and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi.
The Conservative Party, which faced a historic defeat, has many Indian politicians who retained their berths despite a serious Labour wave. These include Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Claire Coutinho, and Gagan Mohindra. Iqbal Mohamed and Shockat Adam won the elections as independent candidates.
Pakistani Diaspora
Reports appearing in Pakistani media suggest the UK parliament has 15 members who have Pakistani and Kashmiri origins. One report said that at least six have roots in Kashmir’s Mirpur, which almost emigrated entirely and settled in Birmingham.
The Labour Party saw the election of Afzal Khan, Imran Hussain, Naz Shah, Yasmin Qureshi, Muhammad Yasin, Tahir Ali, Shabana Mahmood, Zara Sultana, Dr Zubair Ahmed, Naushabah Khan, and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan. Independent candidates Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain also secured seats, while Saqib Bhatt and Nusrat Ghani won as Conservative candidates.
Kashmir Controversy
Though the Indian diaspora has coexisted in Britain since the days of Raj, there is one subject – Kashmir that has been pushing them against each other. During campaigning a Conservative Party candidate, Marco Longhi invoked Kashmir to get votes and news. However, he was defeated by Labour Party’s Sonia Kumar, a Sikh physiotherapist. Longhi’s letter to Muslim voters had triggered a lot of controversy and gave Sunak, the former Prime Minister, very bad press in India.
Reports appearing in the media suggest that Keir Starmer, 61, the new Prime Minister of the UK, has started working on strengthening strategic ties with India. India’s relationship with the Labour Party has been strained as a result of the Jeremy Corbyn-led party passing an emergency motion calling for international observers to enter the Kashmir region after India revoked Article 370. The Ministry of External Affairs had condemned the resolution as “uninformed and unfounded”. Starmer has already stated that there is “absolutely no place for Hinduphobia in Britain.”
Starmer has asserted that Kashmir is an internal issue between India and Pakistan. “Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament, and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully,” he stated at a meeting with the Labour Friends of India.
