India pulls no punches against Turkey; tells Erdogan to 'understand democratic practices'

India on Tuesday lambasted Pakistan, Turkey and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council for their remarks on India's internal affairs. Responding to reference made by Turkey on Jammu and Kashmir, India in its right to reply advised Turkey to refrain from commenting on the internal affairs of India and develop a better understanding of democratic practices.

The democratic practices remark at Turkey appears to be well directed seeing as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is widely accused of cementing his power as a result of fixed elections and a clampdown on the opposition, having even faced a failed coup just a few years ago.

'The OIC has no locus standi to comment'

First secretary, Permanent Mission of India in Geneva Pawan Badhe who delivered India's right to reply 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 the 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."

Slamming Pakistan, the Indian diplomat said, "It has become habitual for Pakistan to malign my country with false and fabricated narratives for its self-serving malicious purposes."

"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," he said.

India humiliates Pakistan at Human Rights platform

India also raised issues of state-supported persecution in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  Highlighting the nefarious designs of Pakistan in Pakistan-occupied  Kashmir, the Indian representative said, "the mass influx of outsiders has whittled down the number of Kashmiris to an insignificant number in Pakistan occupied parts of Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Laddakh. 

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"In its zeal to reassert its theocratic ideology, it has ensured that ethnic and religious minorities have no future through systematic persecution, blasphemy laws, forced conversions, targeted killings, sectarian violence and faith-based discrimination," the diplomat said.

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"Thousands of Sikh, Hindus and Christian minority women and girls have been subjected to abductions, forced marriages and conversions in Pakistan." On the plight of people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, the Indian diplomat said, "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.

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(With agency inputs)