India issued a sharp rebuttal to Switzerland at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), calling its comments on the treatment of minorities in India “surprising, shallow, and ill-informed.”
The exchange took place on Wednesday during the General Debate on the oral update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 60th Session of the Council in Geneva.
Switzerland, which currently holds the UNHRC presidency, urged India to take stronger measures to safeguard the rights of minorities and uphold freedom of expression and media rights.
Responding on behalf of India, Kshitij Tyagi, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, rejected the Swiss remarks, stressing that they misrepresented India’s reality.
“As it holds the UNHRC presidency, it is all the more important for Switzerland to avoid wasting the Council’s time with narratives that are blatantly false and do not do justice to the reality of India. Instead, it should focus on its own challenges such as racism, systemic discrimination and xenophobia,” Tyagi said.
Calling India “the world’s largest, most diverse and vibrant democracy,” Tyagi asserted that India remains ready to “help Switzerland address these concerns.”
Separate Exchange with Pakistan
On the same day, India also delivered a strongly worded Right of Reply to Pakistan, rejecting Islamabad’s remarks during the debate.
Tyagi accused Pakistan of using the Council for “political propaganda” and reiterated India’s position that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.
“We are compelled, once again, to address provocations from a country whose own leadership recently likened it to a ‘dump truck’, perhaps an inadvertently apt metaphor for a state that continues to deposit recycled falsehoods and stale propaganda before this distinguished Council,” Tyagi said.
He cited multiple terror attacks carried out by Pakistan-based groups, including Pulwama, Uri, Pathankot, Mumbai, and the recent April Pahalgam attack. Tyagi noted that the assault “turned a meadow of joy into a killing field.”
Marking the anniversary of 9/11, Tyagi reminded the Council that Pakistan had harbored Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden until he was killed in a US Navy SEAL operation in Abbottabad.
“We need no lessons from a terror sponsor; no sermons from a persecutor of minorities; no advice from a state that has squandered its own credibility,” Tyagi concluded.
