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Rubio dismisses UN experts’ criticism of India’s protests (Img: X)
New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dismissed the term “UN experts” as an “oxymoron” while responding to questions about the United Nations’ criticism of India’s handling of protests against the Election Commission. He described the issue as a domestic political matter, saying it was for Indians to decide.
Asked about protests by opposition parties and students in India, along with allegations by UN experts of a crackdown on demonstrators, Rubio said Washington would not interfere in the country’s internal political affairs.
"Well the UN experts, my favourite. The UN experts is an oxymororn," he said.
He stressed that India was a democracy with an electoral process and declined to comment further on its domestic politics.
“No, it's a domestic political matter. This is a democracy, they have elections here. I am not going to opine on their political matters,” Rubio said.
The US secretary of state also drew a distinction between peaceful demonstrations and riots involving vandalism and destruction of property. He said the ability to express differing political views was an important feature of democratic societies.
"I am not talking about the riots, what you see in Europe. They are vandalizing and breaking and burning down buildings. I am not talking about that," he said.
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Rubio’s remarks come amid a diplomatic exchange over concerns raised by UN experts regarding India’s handling of protests. The experts alleged restrictions on peaceful assembly and expressed concern over the reported excessive use of force against demonstrators, as well as reports of enforced disappearances.
India rejected the criticism at the United Nations on Tuesday, objecting to what it described as attempts to portray the country negatively on the basis of unverified allegations and incomplete statistics.
Indian diplomat Barkha Tamrakar told the UN that constitutional safeguards, including Article 21, protect human rights and provide for due process.
“India firmly opposes any attempt to convert unverified allegations, incomplete statistics, or a report that contains no India country observation into a negative characterization of the world's largest democracy,” Tamrakar said.
“Human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective country targeting,” she added.
India also called for human rights concerns to be addressed through impartial and evidence-based engagement. It opposed what it described as the selective scrutiny of individual countries and maintained that allegations should not be used to exert political pressure.
The exchange highlights differing positions over the protests, with UN experts raising concerns about the treatment of demonstrators, India rejecting the allegations and Rubio declining to offer a judgement on the country's domestic political affairs.
