BJP leader Subramanian Swamy says will sue UN official over alleged comments about Muslims
UNITED NATIONS: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said that he will sue a senior UN official, who described alleged comments about Muslims attributed to him as "extremely alarming", saying the diplomat's remarks are slander and a "blatant lie."
Earlier this week, Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in a note to the media expressed concern over reports of "increased hate speech and discrimination" against minority communities in India since the adoption of the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019.
In the letter, Dieng made a reference to the BJP leader, saying "statements such as those expressed by Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy, that all people are not equal, and that Muslims are not in an 'equal category' as others are extremely alarming."
Swamy hit back at Dieng's assertion, saying in a tweet on May 19 that the UN official "slandered me in a press release in New York saying I had said in an interview to a Pakistani owned TV channel that Muslims are not equal to Hindus in Indian Constitution."
This is a blatant lie so I will take steps to sue him in court.
Swamy further said in a tweet on Thursday that in a letter to the Foreign Secretary (Harsh Vardhan Shringla), he has expressed his intention to prosecute for defamation Dieng for relying on a Pakistani owned TV's cut and paste interview, to allege that I said Muslims don't have equal rights with Hindus in India.
He said a legal notice will 'very soon' be served on Dien.
Dien, a Senegalese international lawyer, is a former registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.