‘World doesn’t need lessons on democracy from Pakistan,’ India tells UN human rights body

India on Tuesday criticised Pakistan at the United Nations, saying “the world does not need lessons on democracy and human rights” from a country that had “not enjoyed any true democracy since its existence”. The real problem in Jammu and Kashmir, India said, was cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

India made the remarks at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, exercising its right to reply after Pakistan mentioned a United Nations report on the situation in Kashmir.

The report, released in June, had detailed alleged human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control. India had called the report “fallacious, tendentious and motivated”, while Pakistan said it was ready to facilitate a Commission of Inquiry to visit Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Mini Devi Kumam, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, said New Delhi rejected the report and instead “deplores Pakistan’s repeated and malicious propaganda to distract the world from its gross violation of human rights, especially in the territories under its control”.

Kumam spoke about the “absence of constitutional and civil rights” in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and “large scale repression, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings” in Sindh, Balochistan and Khybar Pakhtunkhwa.

Kumam also said it was ironic that Pakistan was speaking about communal disharmony and religious intolerance when its own “foundation was laid on religious fundamentalism”.

“The world does not need lessons on democracy and human rights from Pakistan which has not enjoyed any true democracy since its existence,” she said. “Indian democracy guarantees constitutional rights to all its citizens and is mature enough to effectively address all challenges, including that in Jammu and Kashmir through sufficiently strong and adequate mechanisms.”