India has defended its decision to abstain from the voting on the rights situation in China’s Xinjiang at the UN Human Rights Commission, saying it was in line with the practice of not voting on country-specific resolutions.
India abstained from a resolution at the UNHRC calling for a debate on the human rights situation in Xinjiang.
“It is in line with India’s practice of not voting on country-specific resolutions,” MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing.
“We have taken note of the OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China. The human rights of the people of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region should be respected and guaranteed. We hope that the relevant party will address the situation properly,” Bagchi added.
The Chinese Government has been accused of committing a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang.
Human Right Watch has specifically charged China with mass detention, torture, cultural persecution of Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims. More than one million Uyghurs have been detained in a large network of what Beijing calls “re-education camps”.
India’s decision has invited strong criticism from the Opposition parties who have accused the Centre of lacking courage to take on China.
Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari wondered why there was “so much diffidence on China”.
“The Government of India will not agree to a Parliamentary debate on Chinese incursions. India will abstain at UNHRC on a resolution for debate on human rights in Xinjiang,” he tweeted.
He alleged that the Ministry of External Affairs does not accord political clearance to Parliamentarians to visit Taiwan.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale tweeted, “Giving them our land and abstaining on holding them to account. What exactly is it that makes (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi so afraid of China?”
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi wanted to know from the Prime Minister the reason for India’s decision “to help China out in the UNHRC on the Uighur issue”.
“Is he so scared of offending (Chinese President) Xi Jingping (Jinping), whom he met 18 times, that India can’t speak for what is right?,” he tweeted.
“From red eye to closed eye,” tweeted Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena leader, in Hindi.
India on Thursday abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China’s restive Xinjiang region.
Human rights groups have been sounding alarm over what is happening in the resource-rich north-western Chinese province for years