No right to comment on internal affairs: India slams Pakistan President’s comments

New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday strongly responded to the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s comments on the demolition of religious sites in India, saying he does not have any standing to comment on the internal matters of India.

“India categorically rejects the unwarranted comments made by the President of Pakistan. He has, in any case, no locus standi to comment on matters that are internal to India,” the MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while responding to media queries.

Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari commented on the demolition of religious sites in India.

The MEA called these comments “particularly absurd given Pakistan’s own abysmal record on human rights, which is a matter of global commentary. Pakistan’s long history of systematically targeting and victimising minorities across various faiths is notorious”.

It also noted that “given this reality, the President’s remarks can only be read as a deliberate political attack, driven by Pakistan’s national policies of bigotry and hatred”.

On Friday, India firmly rejected “baseless and malicious allegations” by Pakistan, while dismissing references to the India’s Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir made by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), reiterating that the region remains an “integral and inalienable” part of the country.

Speaking at the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, Anupama Singh, said, “India is compelled to exercise its right of reply in response to the references made to it by Pakistan and the OIC. We categorically reject the baseless and malicious allegations made by Pakistan. We also categorically reject the references to Jammu and Kashmir made by the OIC. Pakistan’s propaganda is designed to mask its domestic failures and support for terrorism. Its misuse of the OIC coordinator’s role only reinforces deception. We have no desire to dignify such propaganda.”

Singh also accused Pakistan of pursuing terrorism as state policy while simultaneously portraying itself as a victim of terrorism.

“This is the country where the sitting Defence Minister boasts of hosting, training, and deploying terrorists as state policy, and yet Pakistan calls itself a victim of terrorism. Indeed, a paradox which only Pakistan could sustain. It is a living example of a Frankenstein state, which is shocked when its own monster bites back,” she said.

–IANS

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