NEW DELHI: India has lashed out at the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) on Minority issues for alleging that hosting of G20 meeting in Srinagar is a denial of Kashmiri minorities’ democratic rights.
“ We, India at UN in Geneva, strongly reject the statement issued by SR on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, on the baseless and unwarranted allegations in it. As G20 President, it is India’s prerogative to host its meetings in any part of the country. We are aghast that Fernand has acted irresponsibly to politicise this issue, misused his position as SR to publicise on social media his presumptive and prejudiced conclusions in a gross violation of the Code of Conduct for SRs,’’ said Permanent Mission of India’s tweets.
The SR has made allegations that India is attempting to show that situation is normal in Kashmir.
“Holding a G20 meeting in Kashmir while massive human rights violations are ongoing is lending support to attempts by India to normalise the brutal and repressive denial of democratic and other rights of minorities,” the SR has said.
He went on to state that G20 should be used to uphold human rights.
“...the situation in Jammu and Kashmir should be decried and condemned not pushed under the rug and ignored with the holding of the meeting,” the SR added.
India has the ongoing Presidency of G20 under which it is hosting over 200 meetings in different states across the country.