Labours famous doublespeak on Kashmir was again evident at the partys annual conference at Brighton when a senior British minister said different things on the issue to Indians and Pakistanis.
Minister at Foreign Office Derek Fatchett spoke of self-determination for Kashmir at a meeting called by Pakistanis one day and then of Britains support to a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan at a meeting called by Indians the following day, according to accounts from the two groups.
Both addresses were to fringe meetings organised on the sidelines of the Labour conference.
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Fatchett said at a meeting called by a Pakistani group on September 30 that Labour stands for equality and justice and that it can respect claims on the grounds of ethnicity. He said a Kashmir solution must be one that is acceptable to all the people of Kashmir.
He offered British mediation to help resolve any dispute over Kashmir, but said Britain can only help if its assistance was sought. This was one of few positions taken consistently at both the meetings.
The meeting called by the Pakistani lobby was chaired by Gerald Kaufman, a senior Labour MP who has for long been abusive of India. Ms Clare Short, another longstanding supporter of the Pakistani position, also attended. Fatchett made a speech consistent with the pro-Pakistan positions taken by Kaufman.
Just 24 hours later at a meeting called by the British Indian Councillors Association (BICA) Fatchett was talking a different language.
Some of what Fatchett said became significant in the light of what former Labour Party leader Michael Foot said at the meeting before him. Foot said we made some terrible errors in 1947-48, we did not listen sufficiently to what some people were telling us.
Foot said it had been desirable, no, necessary to preserve the unity of India. The partition, he said, was a terrible event with terrible consequences, which still poisons the atmosphere in the Indian subcontinent. Independence, he said, could have been better done, should have been better done.
But even now, he said, the British government should support policies that keep India united and even restore some of the disunion that happened before.
In response to this Fatchett said: He is right. Hindsight and experience tell us that some of the decisions were mistaken. Fatchett did not spell out what decisions he had in mind. But his agreement convinced many councillors at the meeting that he was agreeing with what Foot had said.
Fatchett said that Britain supports a positive outcome of the India-Pakistan talks. On Kashmir all he said was we would wish to see that issue resolved. He made no mention of self-determination at the meeting with the Indian councillors.
But there were indications of a change of tone from the Labour Party conference adopted at the party conference in Brighton two years ago. A resolution passed unanimously at the 1995 conference had spoken of the duty of Britain to play a role in Kashmir as the former imperial power.
Now at the meeting on Wednesday Fatchett said Britain is willing to help not as an old imperial entity but as a new partner country, and it is that new relationship that is so important.
Fatchett hinted also at disagreements, without spelling out what they were over. We see in India an old and trusted friend, he said. But there are candid moments when we disagree. That does not end the friendship.
Fatchett expressed his admiration for India on other counts. He said it was an achievement that India has maintained a democracy for 50 years.But Fatchett made no acknowledgement of the commitment of India to human rights at the Pakistan meeting.
Several speakers at this meeting made routine allegations of human rights abuses in India, particularly in Kashmir.