Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi
Though India staved off the Pakistani challenge at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on September 10, its diplomats are keeping their guard up against a surprise ambush.
Indian diplomats have another reason to be on their toes. PM Narendra Modi and Pakistan PM Imran Khan will speak at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 27, the same day that the UNHRC’s session ends. A rap on the knuckles from UNHRC may not play out well in the UNGA from India’s point of view.
Government sources here point out that Pakistan’s lobbying, led by the Governor of Sindh Imran Ismail and American business magnate Tahir Javed, has already been successful in eliciting a statement of approbation from four US Democrat Senators on human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s call to march to the Line of Control (LoC), which was deliberately leaked by its intelligence agencies to their Indian counterparts, will not only whip up consternation here but abroad as well. The worry in capitals abroad will only be to Islamabad’s advantage whose main sales pitch is that a spike in tensions could descend into a war, conventional and even nuclear.
The anxiety over Kashmir becoming a trigger for war could compel several countries to provide a face-saving appeaser at the UNHRC to Pakistan. Though India is confident that Pakistan will not be able to muster the numbers to force a vote of condemnation at UNHRC, it is leaving nothing to chance.
Senior diplomat Ajay Bisaria has been asked to stay in Geneva till the last day of the current UNHRC session to add to the efforts by Indian Ambassador to UN, Geneva, Rajiv K Chander to keep many of the 44-member countries (India, China and Pakistan are the remaining three) to ensure they are not swayed by temporary considerations by making a demand that may be too hot for the Indian political leadership to handle.
So far, apart from China, Belarus is the only country that has spoken about the situation in J&K, that too in the passing. But India’s antenna has been up after UNHRC Chief Michelle Bachelet asked for respect for the rights for those who have been detained. A victim of torture by a military regime herself, she also underlined the importance of consulting and engaging the people of Kashmir in any decision-making processes impacts their future. This is an aspect, the sources concede, where the Indian political leadership has pulled up woefully short.
Battery of diplomats on the job
Senior diplomat Ajay Bisaria, recently expelled by Pakistan as India’s High Commissioner, has been asked to stay put in Geneva till the last day of the UNHRC’s 42nd session to guard against Pakistan springing an unpleasant surprise. Indian Ambassador to UN Rajiv K Chander and diplomats Mini Devi Kumam and Vimarsh Aryan too have defended India’s position well so far.
