Mumbai: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday described the term "UN experts" as an "oxymoron" when asked about the United Nations' criticism of India's handling of protests, while declining to weigh in on the issue and saying that domestic political matters must be decided by the people of the country concerned.
Responding to a reporter's question about protests by opposition parties and students in India and the UN experts' allegations of a crackdown, Rubio said he would not get involved in India's internal political affairs.
"Well, the UN experts, yeah. My favourite. The UN experts, or is that an oxymoron?" Rubio remarked.
Clarifying Washington's position, he said, "No, it's a domestic political matter. I mean, I am not going to get involved in their politics. This is a democracy. They have elections here. So I am not going to align on their domestic political matters."
Rubio said demonstrations and the expression of differing political opinions were part of democratic discourse, distinguishing peaceful protests from riots involving vandalism, arson and destruction of property.
He said the ability of people to express themselves and engage in political debate was an important feature of democratic societies. Citing Cuba as a contrast, Rubio pointed to restrictions faced by opposition voices there, including the risk of imprisonment, oppression or exile.
"But we're not going to comment on internal political matters. That's for the Indian people to decide and navigate," he said.
Earlier, India exposed the double standards of the United Nations and its frontal organisations have been exposed after contrasting stands taken by the representatives to paint protests in India as an issue of alleged human rights abuse. At the United Nations India stressed that human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective targeting of countries.
Indian diplomat Barkha Tamrakar who addressed the Assembly on Tuesday (local time) said that India's constitutional safeguards, including Article 21 of the Constitution, protect human rights and ensure due process, as United Nations experts raised concerns over alleged excessive use of force against protesters and restrictions on peaceful demonstrations.Barkha Tamrakar stressed that human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective targeting of countries.
"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...Human rights should not be used as an instrument of political pressure or selective country targeting," Tamrakar said, emphasising the need for impartial and evidence-based engagement on human rights issues.
The strong rebuttal came after UN experts had claimed that authorities in India were restricting peaceful assembly and indulging in 'enforced disappearances'. Contrastingly a much milder stand was expressed by UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk when it came to speaking of the police crackdown on violent protests in France and other parts of Europe. Turk even went to the extent of calling protestors 'vandals'.
India has strongly opposed characterisations based on unverified allegations, incomplete statistics or reports lacking India-specific observations.