India slams UN Special Rapporteur’s comments on Kashmir ahead of G20 meet

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s mission to United Nations slammed Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues over the comment on G20 meet in Srinagar and called it “baseless and unwanted.” Taking to Twitter, the Indian mission to the UN in Geneva said, “We @IndiaUNGeneva strongly reject the statement issued by SR on minority issues @fernanddev & the baseless & unwarranted allegations in it. As G20 President, it’s India’s prerogative to host its meetings in any part of the country.”

India accused UN’s Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes of “acting irresponsibly” and politicising the Jammu and Kashmir issue. “We are aghast that @fernanddev has acted irresponsibly to politicize this issue, misused his position as SR to publicize on social media his presumptive and prejudiced conclusions in a gross violation of the Code of Conduct for SRs,” he added.

Earlier, Varennes tweeted that holding a G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir while massive human rights violations are ongoing is lending support to attempts by India to normalize the brutal & repressive denial of democratic & other rights of Kashmiri Muslims and minorities. “G20 should on the contrary uphold ‘International human rights obligations & the #UN Declaration of Human Rights should be upheld… and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir should be decried and condemned, not pushed under the rug and ignored with the holding of this meeting’,” he added.

Srinagar will be hosting the G20 meeting of the working group on tourism from May 22 to May 24. Last time also, Pakistan tried to create unnecessary noise regarding the G20 working group meeting during the SCO Foreign Minister Meeting, which took place on May 4 and 5 in Goa.

When Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari raised the issue, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar said, “I don’t think there is a G20 issue to debate with anybody, certainly not with a country which is nothing to do with G20. Jammu and Kashmir was, is, and will always be a part of India. The G20 meetings are held in all the Indian states and Union Territories, so it is completely natural that it is held there.” (ANI)