Right of Reply by India at the High-Level Segment of the 61st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council (23 Feb – 31 Mar 2026), delivered by Ms. Anupama Singh, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN, Geneva, 25 February 2025 Right of Reply by India at the High-Level Segment of the 61st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights..

Right of Reply by India at the High-Level Segment of the 61st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council (23 Feb – 31 Mar 2026), delivered by Ms. Anupama Singh, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN, Geneva, 25 February 2025

Right of Reply by India at the High-Level Segment of the 61st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council (23 Feb – 31 Mar 2026), delivered by Ms. Anupama Singh, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the UN, 

Geneva, 25 February 2025

Mr. President,

 India is compelled to exercise its Right of Reply in response to references made to it during the High-Level Segment by Pakistan and the OIC. We categorically reject these allegations.  

  1.   The OIC by parroting Pakistan’s propaganda, only reveals how deeply it has allowed itself to be co-opted by one member, reducing itself to an echo chamber for one country’s political compulsions. 
  2. Pakistan’s incessant propaganda now reeks of envy. We have no desire to dignify such propaganda, however, we will make a few points, to dismantle it with facts. 
  3. Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. No amount of wishful rhetoric or audacious propaganda by Pakistan can alter the immutable fact that the accession of Jammu & Kashmir to India was completely legal and irrevocable, and in accordance with Indian Independence Act (1947) and the international law.
  4. In fact, the only outstanding dispute regarding this region is the illegal occupation of Indian territories by Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to vacate these areas, which remain under its forcible occupation.

Mr. President, 

  1. It is indeed hard to take lectures on democracy from a country where civilian governments rarely complete their terms. They ring hollow. The record voter turnout in general elections and Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir, is a testimony to the fact that people of Jammu & Kashmir have rejected the ideology of terrorism and violence propagated by Pakistan and are surging ahead on the path of development and democracy.
  2. If the Chenab Rail Bridge, the world’s highest bridge inaugurated in Jammu & Kashmir last year is fake, then Pakistan must be hallucinating or living in the La La Land. Or maybe, Pakistan finds it unbelievable that the developmental budget of Jammu & Kashmir, is more than double the recent bailout package they sought from the IMF. 



Mr. President,

  1. To conclude, despite Pakistan’s efforts to destabilize the region through relentless state-sponsored terrorism, Jammu & Kashmir continues to surge ahead – politically, economically and socially. Pakistan would do well if it focuses on fixing its deepening internal crises than to mask them with grandstanding at such platform – the world can certainly see through its charade.

Thank you.

 

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