At the 45th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Pakistan, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Turkey raked up the issue of sovereign Indian Kashmir, toeing the same-old boring Pakistani line on the valley, a portion of which continues to remain under illegal occupation of the terror state. India, having learnt over the years how to deal with such childish rants on international forums, gave it back to all those who took to preach New Delhi about human rights abuses, while completely ignoring their own backyard.First Secretary at Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, Pawan Badhe took Pakistan, the OIC and Turkey to the cleaners, and subtly told them to mind their own business.
On Pakistan, the First Secretary said, “Neither India nor others deserve this unsolicited lecture on human rights from a country that has consistently persecuted its ethnic and religious minorities, is an epicentre of terrorism, has the distinction of providing pensions to individuals on UN Sanctions list and has a Prime Minister who proudly admits training tens of thousands of terrorists to fight in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Badhe was not done with Pakistan yet, as he went on to add, “Thousands of Sikh, Hindus and Christian minority women and girls have been subjected to abductions, forced marriages and conversions in Pakistan. The plight of people under its subjugation is well represented by the state of affairs in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. Not a single day has gone by when a family in Balochistan doesn’t find its members picked up or kidnapped by the security forces of Pakistan.”
Pawan Badhe also, while using India’s right to reply to fallacious propaganda spread against it at a multinational forum, reminded Pakistan about how the FATF and other financial watchdogs continue to raise serious concerns about the Islamic Republic’s propensity to fund terror activities. He also reminded the UNHRC about how thousands of Sikh, Hindu, Christian and women from other minorities have been forcefully converted by conducting marriages out of the woman’s free will. The issue of exodus of Kashmiris out of PoK and press freedom in Pakistan too were not given a miss by the Secretary.
To OIC, the First Secretary said, “We reject the reference made by the OIC to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India. The OIC has no locus standi to comment on internal affairs of India. The OIC has allowed itself to be misused by Pakistan to subverse its own agenda. It’s for the members of the OIC to decide if it is in their interests to allow Pakistan to do so.”
Keeping his retort towards Turkey minimal, Badhe said, “(we) can only advise Turkey to refrain from commenting on the internal affairs of India and develop a better understanding of the democratic practices.” It must be remembered that Turkey, under an extremist Recep Tayyip Erdogan is increasingly abandoning democracy and secularism within his country to resuscitate the Ottoman Empire from its grave.
The First Secretary at Permanent Mission of India in Geneva completely owned the three notorious entities trying to rake the Kashmir bogie at the UNHRC with crisp and indisputable comebacks.