A very productive meeting with UK representatives from the Indian Congress Party where we discussed the human right… https://t.co/cU5n3uCm3H — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) 1570642862000

LONDON: UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn ’s tweet on Thursday about “a very productive meeting” on Kashmir with leaders of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) has created a controversy for Congress in the middle of campaigning for assembly polls, forcing it to clarify that it had only met the British MP to oppose a motion passed by his party recently which said there was a “humanitarian crisis” in Kashmir.Posting his picture with senior leaders of IOC (UK), including its president Kamal Dhaliwal, Corbyn tweeted: “A very productive meeting with UK representatives from the Indian Congress Party where we discussed the human rights situation in Kashmir. There must be a de-escalation and an end to the cycle of violence and fear which has plagued the region for so long.”The statement prompted a host of reactions from Congress leaders, who stressed that any issue pertaining to J&K was an internal affair of India. Notwithstanding Congress’s reactions, senior sources at Labour head office told TOI that the tweet was “entirely accurate”.Clarifying on the objective of the meeting, IOC (UK) spokesperson Sudhakar Goud told TOI: “We don’t accept interference from any external country in our internal matters. There are no human rights violations in Kashmir. And if there were any, we would fight them internally. We said that the only concern we had was about the way BJP had revoked Article 370 without consulting the J&K assembly and clampdown on communications."Congress leader Anand Sharma said in Delhi that he was “shocked by this misrepresentation and any unauthorised statement” made on behalf of his party. “No chapter of IOC has the mandate to speak on any matter that pertains to policy on domestic issues. They are supposed to be confined to diaspora. The Congress party's position is firm and clear, as given in the CWC resolution, that any issue pertaining to J&K is India's internal affairs. We are conveying this to the Labour Party leadership," he said.Goud said at the meeting, IOC (UK) had raised concerns of the diaspora about London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is of Pakistani origin, “supporting” the violent protests outside the High Commission of India.“Corbyn said it was not true and that Sadiq was sad about it. He also told us there was no National Executive Committee approval of the emergency motion and he himself was not happy with it but that it got through without proper debate as it was an emergency motion. I don’t think Labour will withdraw it but they will issue a statement,” Goud said.Dhaliwal said they had met Corbyn on his invitation “to discuss the situation in Kashmir”. “We told him that the Labour Party should not interfere in India’s internal matter and Kashmir is an integral part of India and the Labour Party’s resolution on Kashmir is inappropriate.”“As everyone knows, the root cause of unrest in Kashmir stems from Pakistan. We urged Corbyn to put pressure on Pakistan to stop funding and providing training to terrorist groups in Pakistan. He should speak on that,” Dhaliwal added.The Labour Party has been criticised for having an anti-Semitism stance since Corbyn’s election as leader in September 2015 with many in the party being vocal against Israel . Corbyn has also been criticised for having links to the IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah .