Calling the report “disconnected from actuality”, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) stated it chooses to “intentionally ignore efforts made by the federal government to make sure meals safety” in the course of the pandemic. It claimed the Centre was working the “largest meals safety programme on this planet”.
Comparable criticism from worldwide organisations, together with authorities entities and NGOs, has drawn fast, and caustic, responses from the Modi authorities earlier too.
In July, the MEA slammed the US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF) for its report that put India, together with China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and 11 different nations, on an inventory of “nations of specific concern” over non secular freedom.
The USCIRF, a US federal authorities fee appointed by the President and the management of each events within the Senate and the Home of Representatives, designated India as a “nation of specific concern for partaking in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious non secular freedom violations, as outlined by the Worldwide Spiritual Freedom Act (IRFA)”.
Hitting out on the USCIRF, MEA’s spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated “these feedback replicate a extreme lack of awareness of India and its constitutional framework, its plurality and its democratic ethos… Such actions solely serve to strengthen issues in regards to the credibility and objectivity of the organisation”.
The month earlier than, on June 29, the MEA hit again on the Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its criticism of the arrests of activist-journalist Teesta Setalvad and ex-DGP RB Sreekumar after a Supreme Courtroom order upheld a Particular Investigation Group (SIT)’s clear chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others within the 2002 Gujarat riots. “We’re very involved by the arrest and detention of #WHRD @TeestaSetalvad and two ex cops and name for his or her fast launch. They need to not be persecuted for his or her activism and solidarity with the victims of the 2002 #GujaratRiots,” the UN human rights physique stated.
Becoming a member of the difficulty with the OHCHR, Bagchi stated its remarks “represent an interference in India’s impartial judicial system,” including that “Indian authorities act in opposition to violations of regulation in accordance with established judicial processes. Labelling such authorized actions as persecution for activism is deceptive and unacceptable”.
A New York Instances article on April 18, headlined “India Is Stalling the WHO’s Efforts to Make World Covid Demise Toll Public” drew a pointy response from India. The article stated India was objecting to creating the information of WHO (World Well being Organisation)’s examine on Covid-19 mortalities public because the latter estimated 4.7 million deaths, immediately or not directly attributable to Covid, throughout 2020-21 as in opposition to the nation’s official Covid loss of life depend of simply 481,486. In an announcement, the Union Well being Ministry questioned the WHO’s methodology, saying: “Regardless of India’s objection to the method, methodology and end result of this modelling train, WHO has launched the surplus mortality estimates with out adequately addressing India’s concern.”
Final 12 months, on December 2, the MEA responded to the OHCHR’s criticism of the arrest of human rights activist Khurram Parvez on expenses of alleged terrorism, claiming that the UN human rights physique’s assertion — in opposition to “crackdown on civil society actors”, use of “sweeping counter-terrorism measures” and killings of civilians — made “baseless and unfounded allegations in opposition to regulation enforcement authorities and safety forces of India” and that Parvez’s “arrest and… detention” was “fully as per provisions of regulation”.
At an India Right this moment conclave on March 14, 2021, Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was requested about India’s downgrading by two of the main democracy-rating companies — the US-based Freedom Home, which categorized India as “partly free”, down from “free” earlier, and a Swedish organisation, Types of Democracy, which categorised India as an “electoral autocracy”.
Jaishankar responded by questioning the standards that the organisations use. “It’s hypocrisy. We have now a set of self-appointed custodians of the world who discover it very tough to abdomen that any individual in India shouldn’t be in search of their approval, and isn’t prepared to play the sport they wish to play. So they create their guidelines, their parameters, move their judgments and make it look as whether it is some sort of international train,” he stated.
In the course of the year-long farmer protests in opposition to the three now-repealed farm legal guidelines, the Narendra Modi-led authorities drew widespread criticism from varied worldwide quarters.
In February 2021, singer Rihanna and local weather activist Greta Thunberg voiced their assist for the protesting farmers. Whereas Rihanna shared an article about web shutdowns in the course of the farm protests, Thunberg shared a toolkit for these supporting the farmers, which prompted a police investigation. Subsequently, former grownup movie star Mia Khalifa additionally prolonged her assist to the farmers.
Reacting to such criticism, the MEA had then stated, “The Parliament of India, after a full debate and dialogue, handed reformist laws regarding the agricultural sector,” which have “expanded market entry and supplied higher flexibility to farmers.” It claimed that solely “a really small part of farmers in components of India” had “some reservations about these reforms and that “respecting the emotions of the protestors, the Authorities of India has initiated a collection of talks with their representatives… But, it’s unlucky to see vested curiosity teams making an attempt to implement their agenda on these protests, and derail them. This was egregiously witnessed on January 26, India’s Republic Day.”
Echoing the ministry, a number of BJP leaders additionally got here down closely on Rihanna and Thunberg. “We stand collectively. We stand United in opposition to all makes an attempt to malign India by way of propaganda and faux narratives,” BJP president J P Nadda tweeted. At a press convention, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was accountable for the row, charging that “He (Rahul) goes overseas to hatch conspiracy with anti-India components as to the best way to defame India and drag the nation into controversies”.
A couple of months later, on July 21, 2021, when a consortium of stories organisations and human rights our bodies, together with NGO Amnesty Worldwide, broke the information in regards to the authorities having allegedly deployed a spyware and adware Pegasus to listen in on telephones and gadgets of rival leaders, journalists and others, the BJP’s Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma demanded Amnesty’s banning, alleging that it was a part of a “lengthy historical past of hatching conspiracies in opposition to India’s democratic material and its management”.
In January 2019, a US Division of State report, which expressed concern over the plight of minorities in India, upset the federal government, which stated the previous didn’t have any “locus standi” to “pronounce on the state of our residents’ constitutionally protected rights”.
In July 2019, the UN Human Rights physique’s report on the scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, which was an up to date model of its 2018 report on the identical difficulty, additionally drew criticism from the MEA, which dismissed it as a “false” and violative of “India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The then MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar stated the report was “merely a continuation of the sooner false and motivated narrative” on the J&Ok scenario.