'No need for faraway individuals to decide India's destiny'

Striking a strong stance against the holding of a debate on Kashmir in the British parliament, India Friday said the days when "a group of disparate individuals would decide the destinies of countries far away from their shores" have gone and India would decide issues concerning its own destiny.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, answering a query at a briefing here Friday, said that: "We would like to make it very clear that gone are the days when a group of disparate individuals would decide the destinies of countries far away from their shores.

"As far as India is concerned we are confident that our issues related to us and our destinies will be decided by us and not elsewhere; therefore we have refrained from commenting on disparate individuals who want to articulate their view on matters that we consider to be internal to us."

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have also criticised the House of Commons debate on the state of human rights in Kashmir.

The British government Thursday condemned terrorism and violence and rejected mediation in the dispute between India and Pakistan on Kashmir in a parliamentary debate in which pro-India speakers among the MPs overwhelmed Pakistan supporters by almost three to one.

Of the 18 speakers who participated, only three clearly stood up for Islamabad's cause - the mover of the debate, David Ward, who represented a Bradford constituency where most of the voters or their families hail from Mirpur in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and two MPs of Pakistani-origin.

In contrast, only two of the lawmakers who supported the Indian position were of Indian-descent.