MEA rebuffs Ansari's remark, says India needs no certificate

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 29

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said the “biases and political interests of the participants” were well-known while reacting to reports of a US Congressional briefing in Washington in which former Vice-President Hamid Ansari and four American lawmakers, among others, expressed concern over the human rights situation in India.

Claim presumptuous

We have seen reports on this event. India is a robust and vibrant democracy. It does not require certification from others. The claim that others need to protect our Constitution is presumptuous and preposterous. Arindam Bagchi, MEA Spokesperson

“We have seen reports on this event. India is a robust and vibrant democracy. It does not require certification from others. The claim that others need to protect our Constitution is presumptuous and preposterous,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, when asked by a Russian news agency about the event.

Among nearly 10 speakers, Ansari had said, “In recent years, we have experienced the emergence of trends that dispute the well-established principle of civic nationalism and interposes a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism…. It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness, and promote disquiet and insecurity.”

Other speakers were more trenchant in their criticism. Nadine Maenza, Chair of USCIRF, wanted India to be put in the State Department’s Red List of human rights offenders and Kerry Kennedy, niece of former US President John Kennedy, alleged that New Delhi targeted all those who tried to hold governments accountable for human rights abuses.

Carolyn Nash of Amnesty International said the stories of suffering human rights defenders “must be a wakeup call to show solidarity for civil society and human rights defenders at the front lines of India today”.

Meanwhile, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) said the event was meant to promote a strong US-India strategic partnership “anchored in an understanding that their geopolitical interests are best served by advancing democracy, human rights and religious freedom”. The IAMC contested Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s allegation that it was linked with Pakistan’s ISI and the banned SIMI.

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