India rejects human rights claims as tools for political pressure

India has said human rights should not be used to exert political pressure or selectively target countries, news agency Press Trust of India reported. It opposed attempts to use unverified allegations and incomplete statistics to portray the world's largest democracy negatively.

India said it remained willing to clarify specific and properly documented cases through established channels, but rejected efforts to treat allegations as established findings.

Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Barkha Tamrakar presented India's statement at the UN General Assembly's Third Committee on Tuesday during a discussion on the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances.

According to PTI, Tamrakar said, "India engages with international human rights mechanisms, but such engagement must be based on dialogue, consultation, cooperation with non-selectivity and transparency as guiding principles."

She stressed that human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or for the selective targeting of countries. "We call on delegations to cite the report faithfully, not to inflate a humanitarian communication into a verdict," she said.

Tamrakar said India formally opposed any "attempt to convert unverified allegations, incomplete statistics or a report that contains no India country observation into a negative characterisation of the world's largest democracy".

Her remarks came amid concerns raised by UN human rights experts over recent youth-led protests in New Delhi. More than 20 UN experts in Geneva on Tuesday expressed alarm over what they described as a "repeatedly heavy-handed police response" to peaceful demonstrations led by young people in the national capital.

The experts called on the authorities to ensure justice for reported human rights violations during the protests.

Last week, India also rejected as "hearsay" a report by a UN human rights expert that referred to a "satirical political movement" created by young people in the country and alleged that they had faced retaliation. New Delhi urged the expert to verify the claims before presenting issues based on unverified allegations in a negative light.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had expressed concern over "reports of mass detentions of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists" before and during large-scale demonstrations in Delhi.

India described the office's remarks on the protests as "unwarranted" and an "unacceptable interference" in its internal affairs. It reiterated at the UN that engagement on human rights must be transparent, non-selective and based on dialogue and cooperation.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends