India strongly dismissed Pakistan’s criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hoisting of a saffron flag at the Ayodhya Ram temple, with the Ministry of External Affairs accusing Islamabad of hypocrisy and alleging that Pakistan itself engages in intolerance, repression, and systematic abuse of minorities.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, speaking at the weekly briefing on Wednesday, said India had also rejected Pakistan’s comments on a UN statement issued by special rapporteurs. He said Pakistan had referred to the UN release that expressed concern over India’s actions after the Pahalgam terror attack, including arrests, demolition of houses, and curbs on the media.
Officials said Pakistan had released a statement a day earlier voicing deep concern over Modi’s visit to the temple, which marked the completion of its construction at the site where the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 by Hindu activists.
According to Pakistan, the Indian judiciary’s ruling allowing the temple to be built reflected what it described as state discrimination against minorities. Islamabad also claimed the episode revealed a wider effort to marginalise religious communities and undermine Muslim cultural and religious identity, which it attributed to what it called the influence of a majoritarian Hindutva ideology, the Wire reported.
It also urged the world community to recognise the growing incidence of Islamophobia, hate speech, and attacks inspired by hatred in India.
“We have seen the reported remarks and reject them with the contempt they deserve. As a country with a deeply stained record of bigotry, repression, and systemic mistreatment of its minorities”, he said.
On Monday, ten UN special rapporteurs — independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council — issued a statement saying they were disturbed by what they described as serious human rights violations by Indian authorities in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Responding to the statement, Pakistan’s foreign office said on Wednesday that it had taken note of the findings with deep concern and claimed they supported Islamabad’s long-held position that Kashmiri Muslims faced state-backed persecution and that minorities were discriminated against across India.
When questioned about Pakistan’s remarks along with its comments on other issues, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal repeated India’s earlier response concerning the Ram temple controversy.
The rapporteurs, while condemning the Pahalgam attack in which 26 civilians, most of them tourists, were killed in a meadow on April 22, said that Indian authorities had subsequently detained about 2,800 people, including journalists and human rights activists.