Marco Rubio calls EC protest row India’s ‘internal political matter’, dismisses UN experts as ‘oxymoron’

US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday refused to comment on the recent nationwide protests against the Election Commission of India, terming it an "internal political matter."

Rubio was also dismissive of the reference to UN experts' criticism of the protests. "The UN experts are the oxymoron," said Rubio, who is currently in India on an official visit.

"It's a domestic political matter. I'm not going to get involved in their politics. This is a democracy. They have elections here, so I'm not going to opine on their domestic political matters," he said.

He said that even the US witnesses protests every day and are reflective of the political discourse and difference of opinion.

"We have protests every day in the United States. People view protests – obviously I'm not talking about the riots, like what you're seeing in Europe, where they're vandalising and breaking into things and burning down buildings. I'm not talking about that," Rubio said.

"But in many ways, the fact that people are out there expressing themselves – I'm not talking about India; in any country in the world – is the sign that this is a country where there's political discourse and so forth and differences of opinion," he said.

"We're not going to comment on internal political matters. That's for the Indian people to decide and navigate," Rubio said.

On Tuesday, more than 20 UN human rights experts in Geneva expressed alarm over what they described as a "repeatedly heavy-handed police response" to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in the national capital.

They called on the authorities to ensure justice for reported human rights violations during the protests.