India, at UNESCO meet, slams Pakistan over comments on Ayodhya verdict, Kashmir

lambasted at Pakistan's juvenile propaganda over the Supreme Court's historic verdict on Ayodhya land dispute and Kashmir's transformation into union territories, saying the 'fabricated lies is interference in India's internal affairs.'

"Mr President, we take this chair to refute Pakistan's juvenile propaganda to malign India through fabricated lies, full of deceit and deception. We condemn the unwarranted comments made by Pakistan on the judgment made by the Supreme Court of India. The judgment is about the rule of law, equal respect for all faiths, concepts that are alien to Pakistan and its ethos," an Indian official said while addressing the 40th UNESCO General Conference - General Policy Debate here.

"So, while Pakistan's lack of comprehension is not surprising their pathological compulsion to comment on our internal affairs with the obvious interest of spreading hatred is condemnable. Pakistan's intervention is interference in India's internal affairs. It is unacceptable and rejected," she added.

The remarks came after Pakistan's Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood expressed his dismay at the Indian Supreme Court's decision on Babri Mosque which he said was not in line with UNESCO's values of religious freedom.

"We are therefore dismayed to see that the highest court in India to virtually condone the destruction of centuries-old mosques sacred to Muslims. The international community should take note of this injustice," he told the Chair.

In response, the Indian official said that for India, the most important fundamental right is the right to life. Globally the single largest threat to this right is from terrorism, she added.

"Tragically, the reality facing us is that Pakistan is the world's largest producer and exporter of this evil. Pakistan's political approaches are rooted in terrorist violence and its global engagement is defined by mainstreaming of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft," she said.

Meanwhile, lashing out at Pakistan over its time and again rhetoric on Kashmir, the Indian official said, "The Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have always been ours and shall always be an integral part of India and this includes the territory that is currently under the illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan."

On August 5, the central government had repealed Article 370 and Article 35A that granted special powers to the region and bifurcated the former state into two Union Territories (UTs) -- Jammu and Kashmir with legislature and Ladakh without one.

The new UTs came into existence on October 31.

The decision, however, rattled Pakistan who further raised the matter in front of every international forum but failed to garner enough support.

In order to justify her remarks, the official further raised certain questions to expose Pakistan fabricated lies and deception to malign India.

"In which country were the perpetrators of 9/11 and 26/11 discovered?," the official asked the gathering.

"Where were Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar discovered?"

"Which country is home to 130 UN-designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the United Nations as of today?" she continued further.

"Which is the country where organisations such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamaat ud Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and many other banned terrorist outfits openly conduct their activities collect funds from the street and run their offices with the active support of the state machinery?"

"The Army of which country massacres millions of its own citizens just because they spoke a different language?" she said in an apparent reference to the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in Balochistan and other minority-dominated areas by the Pakistani military establishment.

"The answer to these questions is Pakistan," the official said.

In her concluding remarks, the official said that the global community certainly does not need Pakistan -- a hub of global terrorism-- to be waxing eloquent on internal affairs of India. Indeed the entire, peace-loving members of UNESCO would serve humanity well by coming together to impress upon Pakistan to be a normal country and to eschew preaching, practising and propagating terrorism, she added.
-ANI
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