India exercises Right of Reply against Pakistan at United Nations Human Rights Council. (Image: X/@IndiaUNGeneva)
India’s First Secretary Anupama Singh slammed Pakistan for misusing the Council’s platform to make false allegations against India
India on Wednesday exercised its “Right of Reply” against Pakistan at the 55th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council and slammed the country for raising the Kashmir issue. Stating that Pakistan has no locus standi to pronounce on matters that are internal to India, India’s First Secretary Anupama Singh said the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India.
Speaking at the High-Level Segment of the 55th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Singh said, “We regret the comment made by Türkiye on a matter that is an internal affair of India and hope that it would refrain from making unsolicited comments on our internal matters in future.”
Further pointing towards the misuse of the Council’s platform to make false allegations against India, she said, “With regard to the extensive references to India made by Pakistan, it is deeply unfortunate for the Council’s platform to have once again been misused to make patently false allegations against India.”
Stating that she doesn’t want to waste the Council’s time by replying to the false allegations, Anupama Singh highlighted three points:
- The entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India; and the Constitutional measures taken by the Government of India to ensure socio-economic development and good governance in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are matters internal to India. Pakistan has no locus standi to pronounce on matters that are internal to India.
- A country that has institutionalised the systemic persecution of its own minorities and has a truly abysmal human rights record, commenting on India which is demonstrably making great strides in achieving economic progress and social justice, is not merely ironical but perverse. A glaring example was large scale brutality perpetrated against minority Christian community in Jaranwala city in Pakistan in August 2023, when 19 churches were gutted and 89 Christian houses burnt down.
- A country that hosts and even celebrates UNSC-sanctioned terrorists, commenting on India whose pluralistic ethos and democratic credentials are exemplars for the world, is a contrast for everyone to see.
India Slams Pakistan Over Terrorism
Slamming Pakistan over terrorism, Singh while addressing the UN Human Rights Council said Pakistan has no right to comment on India as its own hands are soaked in the red of the bloodshed from terrorism.
“We don’t want to pay attention to a country that speaks while being soaked in red – the red of the bloodshed from the terrorism it sponsors around the world; the red of its debt-riddled national balance sheets; and the red of the shame its people feel for their government having failed to serve their actual interests.”