Indian Parliamentary Delegation (IPD) led by Lok Sabha Speaker Mr Om Birla, which is currently in Belgrade (Serbia), rebutted baseless allegations of Pakistani Delegation.
Dr. Shashi Tharoor readout India’s rebuttal of IPD as follows:
“Pakistan has raised an issue that is internal to India and extraneous to our discussions for narrow political gains. Indian delegation rejects outright and strongly condemns such references.
Madam Chairperson, I am a Member of Parliament from the leading Opposition Party in India. We will continue to use our Parliament to discuss and debate with our own government on Jammu & Kashmir and other issues. We will, however, fight our own battles domestically and as Parliamentarians and do not need or welcome unwarranted interferences from across the border.
Madam Chairperson
Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India.
It is ironic that a state that is responsible for inflicting countless cross-border terrorist attacks in Jammu & Kashmir is trying to masquerade as champion of Kashmiris. They are not. These malicious efforts will not be allowed to succeed by the Parliament of India.
We expect better from Parliamentarians than the vituperative mud-slinging.
We hope the delegation of Pakistan will refrain from misusing this august forum again, in the collective interest of parliaments of world focussed on serious issues that are under discussion here at the IPU Assembly.”
Later, Dr. Tharoor reiterated India’s rebuttal on Pakistan’s propaganda on Jammu and Kashmir in another session of the Assembly. The text is as under:
“Thank you Mr. Chairman. Before entering into what I came here to say, I regret that the vitriolic outburst by a panelist resorted to a blatant misrepresentation of facts and recycled a false narrative being peddled by his country for its own narrow political purposes and petty territorial ambitions. This is a disappointing misuse of this platform. Pakistan has raised an issue that is internal to India, as an opposition parliamentarian I have raised and will continue to debate Kashmir and other questions with my own Government in the exercise of my democratic rights as an MP, but the kind of statement we heard from the Pakistani diplomat today is distinctly unhelpful. It is particularly ironic that a state that is responsible for inflicting countless cross border terrorist attacks on Jammu and Kashmir is trying to masquerade as a champion of International law.
Pakistan is the only Government in the world that provides a pension to an individual listed by the United Nations and the Al Qaida and Daesh sanction list. Pakistan is home to 130 United Nations designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the United Nations. It is frankly absurd to hear fulminations about respect for human rights from a representative of such a state when terrorism is the worst possible destroyer of human rights. I do want to say that we expect better from an IPU forum than this kind of vituperative mudslinging. We are here to discuss the serious issue of respect for international law in a constructive spirit. We hear Pakistan referring to United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, but it very conveniently forgets its own obligations under the very first of those resolutions to first vacate its illegal occupation of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. It has blatantly disregarded its other commitments under international law, whether under the 1972 Shimla Agreement on the Lahore Declaration of February 1999. People in glass houses, Mr. Chairman should not throw stones, but I will instead return to the issue we are here to talk about this afternoon, and I would like to mention to the distinguished delegates that the Constitution of India is unusual, in there it specifically attaches importance to international legal obligations by providing an Article 51 to endeavour to foster respect for international law, I am quoting here and treaty obligation in the dealing of organised people with one another, in other words respect for international law and United Nations Charter is , therefore, a constitutional obligation in India and the Indian Parliament has passed legislation to adopt United Nations regulations and resolutions as domestic law. India’s convinced of the need for the United Nations to continue to improve its capabilities in the field of peacekeeping and to enhance the effective and efficient deployment of its peacekeeping operations. As I was the United Nations official responsible at Headquarters for our operations in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1996, I know all too well that peacekeeping cannot work where there is no peace to keep. India itself has the largest cumulative number of troops contributed to the United Nations before we stood for peaceful mediation in conflict situation and impartiality and no arbitrariness in the resolution of disputes. We view the significance of United Nations resolutions in the maintenance of rule-based under in trade, maritime, transport, security and strategic matters. But our longstanding demand of reforming the composition and role of the security council in global affairs and conflict resolution cannot be overlooked. Respect for international law suffers, if the United Nations Security Council is widely seen as unrepresentative and therefore its decisions can be disrespected as illegitimate. This must not be allowed to happen. India looks forward to working with other like-minded states on this matter. On the issue of sanctions, I do want to thank Prof……… for an excellent presentation. While we accept that targeted sanctions sometimes work in the manner in which he describes, we would find it impossible to justify comprehensive sanctions against any state, since they harm innocents for more than the rules they are aimed at, who are always insulated from their worst effects. A tool that harms the vulnerable in any country is not one the United Nations should be resorting to. In conclusion, and I am skipping a lot of my points simply because of the lack of time, I would like to state that the Parliaments are their national bodies best place to prevent violation of international law and the rule of law. Parliaments can be key partners to help in preventing conflicts and other negative impacts on the well being of their own citizens and ensuring sustainable and inclusive development and we as parliamentarians can help, by legislation obviously to prevent or remedy human rights or rule of Law violations by debates in Parliament and public education that follows and in our own parliamentary committees by monitoring and enacting to improve our Member states progress in meeting their obligations under international treaties and conventions. So there is an onus on all of us to do a better job of keeping our states accountable. Thank you Mr. Chairman.”