Pak raises Kashmir issue at meet on SDG, India gives back.
New Delhi/Male: India and Pakistan on Sunday had a heated exchange during the South Asian Speakers’ Summit in the Maldives after the Pakistani delegates raised the issue of abrogation of provisions of Article 370 on Jammu & Kashmir, which the Indian side resisted strongly.
The Pakistani representative referred to the Kashmir issue after which a point of order was raised by India and a strong rebuttal was given by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh.
“We strongly object to raising the internal issue of India here and we also reject the politicisation of this forum by raising issues which are extraneous to this summit,” Mr Singh said. The Indian delegation in the summit was being led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
India had last month revoked Article 370 for Jammu & Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories. New Delhi has maintained that this is an internal matter of India. The heated exchange took place at the fourth South Asian Speakers’ Summit on ‘Achieving the Sustainable Goals’ (SDGs).
During the discussions on the summit in the Maldivian Parliament, Pakistan delegate Qasim Suri said, “We cannot ignore the oppression of Kashmiris.”
Mr Singh strongly protested, saying, “There is a need for Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism and all kinds of state support to the same in the interest of regional peace and stability. Terrorism is the biggest threat to the entire humanity in the world today.”
India also pointed out that the summit was meant to discuss SDGs and hence remarks made by the Pakistan delegate should be deleted from the record.
“This forum is only meant to discuss SDGs. This (Pakistan’s comment) should not be a part of the proceedings. I strongly object and this part should be deleted,” Mr Singh said.
Then, Pakistani Senator Qurat ul Ain Marri decided to launch a tirade against India. “SDGs — all of them whether about women, youth or environment — nothing can be achieved without human rights,” she was quoted as saying.
Mr Singh retorted that a country (Pakistan) that was responsible for committing genocide against its own people (in Bangladesh, the erstwhile East Pakistan) had no moral right to raise such an issue.
