Madi Sharma: A dubious character behind EU delegates’ Kashmir trip

Narendra Modi’s gimmick to fool the world by inviting a group of European Parliamentarians to visit Indian occupied Kashmir to show that all is well in the territory has backfired.

The EU has also distanced itself from the MEPs’ visit, with sources telling The Independent that they are visiting in a private capacity, and the right-wing political make-up of the delegation has also drawn criticism from Indian opposition groups.

More: Modi takes Islamophobic MEPs to IoK

It has now been revealed that the visit of EU lawmakers to IoK was arranged by a lesser known think tank and the invitations were sent out by a woman named Modi Sharma.

Sharma, who promised “a prestigious VIP meeting with the Prime Minister of India, His Excellency Narendra Modi” as well as a trip to Kashmir is a mysterious character.

On her Twitter account, Sharma describes herself as a “Social Capitalist: International Business Broker, Education Entrepreneur; Speaker.”

Her letter to the MEPs mentioned that “flight and accommodations will be covered and are sponsored by the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies”.

The institute itself is a dubious entity having ties with an Indian company called Srivastava Group, which also owns the newspaper New Delhi Times.

But what is more intriguing is the fact that both the think tank and the newspaper share the same registered address in New Delhi, and when the institute was approached by Scroll.In they promised a response but never got back to the publication.

Recently, the Srivastava Group was in the headlines in Europe when an investigation found out that its online presence “overlaps” that of EPToday, a website that, “targets members of the European Parliament and other policymakers with media content that is critical of Pakistan and drawn largely from a Russian media outlet known for disinformation”.

Sharma, has also written for the New Delhi Times as its EU Correspondent, and has also claimed to have interviewed former Senate chairman Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, who she calls “one of the most important political figures from Pakistan”.

One of the organisers of the trip, Women’s Economic and Social Think Tank linked with Sharma, called her as the leader of the Madi Group, a conglomerate of “international private and social enterprises and NGOs”.

With all these mysterious credentials, it is still unreal how this woman was able to pull a global show for India and gain access to Indian PM Narendra Modi. Interestingly, the MEPs which were invited by India were  mostly of far-right parties.