Right of Reply by India during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief during the 61st Session of the Human Rights Council (23 Feb – 31 Mar 2026), delivered by
Mr. Kshitij Tyagi, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the UN,
Geneva, 3 March 2026
Mr. Vice President,
India is compelled to exercise its Right of Reply in response to references made by Pakistan during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
Such baseless attempts to tarnish India's civilizational ethos is a gross misuse of this platform. India, where ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities have thrived and held the highest positions in politics, business and society, where freedom of religion and belief is reflected in city landscapes replete with spires and minarets and gopurams of every conceivable kind, is beyond the understanding of this terror state, which is built on religious intolerance, bigotry and a systemic oppression of its own people.
This is the same country where contrary to the precepts of Freedom of religion and Belief, Ahmadiya community has not only been ostracized from every walk of society through a constitutional amendment, but where blasphemy laws are weaponized for their subjugation and that of other religious and sectarian minorities.
The dwindling minority populations in Pakistan are a testament to decades of fear and state-sponsored repression. Of 1285 worship sites for Hindus and 532 Sikh Gurudwaras, a mere 37 remain functional, that too as per their own estimates. The actual situation on the ground is starker.
The framing of religious identities in pejorative terms in their own statement establishes the deep hatred and antipathy they hold for their own minorities.
We are well aware, Mr. Vice President, that the modus operandi of this country is to provoke us, and get whatever little attention it can draw to itself through our response. It is also a deflection mechanism to avoid accountability for all the grave injustices and human rights violations it has been committing against its minorities.
But we continue to respond. We respond because we want the world to understand the absurdities that this country peddles in the Council, and its egregious human rights violations, as it continues to erode the credibility of these discussions.
Thank you
***
