GENEVA: India on Thursday lambasted Pakistan over its statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Supreme Court's verdict on Ayodhya land dispute case and asked the country to rather work constructively and positively for education and upliftment of its own minorities instead of spewing lies for a self-serving malicious propaganda.
Exercising India's right to reply in response to the statement delivered by Pakistan at the 12th session of Forum of Minority Issues, Indian diplomat Vimarsh Aryan noted that the religious, ethnic, sectarian and linguistic minorities in Pakistan have suffered an immense infringement of their fundamental human rights due to the so-called blasphemy laws.
"India is a robust democracy where independent and effective constitutional mechanisms are in place to safeguard interests of all our citizens including religious and linguistic minorities and we strongly reject Pakistan's reference to our judicial decisions," Aryan said.
"It is widely known that in Pakistan, the religious, racial, ethnic, sectarian and linguistic minorities have suffered an immense infringement of their fundamental rights due to the so-called blasphemy laws," he added.
Aryan said that the world does not need lessons on human rights of minorities from a country whose own citizens have never enjoyed true democracy.
"This forum is meant to deliberate upon crucial Human Rights issues of minorities. But instead of adhering of that objective, Pakistan is merely spewing lies of self-serving mendacious propaganda that was evident in its statement which was nothing but a farrago of distortions and misrepresentations," he said.