Kshitij Tyagi
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday ripped apart Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), lashing out at Islamabad for abusing the “forum with baseless and provocative statements against India”.Representing India at the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, Kshitij Tyagi, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, said Pakistan should “focus on rescuing an economy on life support, a polity muzzled by military dominance, and a human rights record stained by persecution”.”A delegation that epitomises the antithesis of this approach continues to abuse this forum with baseless and provocative statements against India,” he said.Tyagi futher said: “Instead of coveting our territory, they would do well to vacate the Indian territory under their illegal occupation and focus on rescuing an economy on life support, a polity muzzled by military dominance, and a human rights record stained by persecution, perhaps once they find time away from exporting terrorism, harbouring UN-proscribed terrorists, and bombing their own people.At least 30 people were killed in an overnight Pakistani air strike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa village, local reports said on Monday. He reaffirmed India’s stand that the Council must remain universal, objective, and non-selective in its approach. “Our collective efforts should foster unity and constructive engagement, not division,” he said.”We are concerned by the continued proliferation of country-specific mandates. Far from advancing the Council’s core mandate, they reinforce perceptions of bias and selectivity. Focusing narrowly on the human rights situation in a few countries distracts us from the urgent and shared challenges the world faces.We firmly believe that lasting progress can only be achieved through dialogue, cooperation, and capacity-building- always with the consent of the State concerned,” Tyagi said. “At a time when the world is struggling with multiple crises, the Council’s work should be channelised into forging consensus through a non-politicised and forward-looking approach,” he said.
