US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday dismissed the criticism by United Nations human rights experts of India's handling of protests against the Election Commission, calling the term “UN experts” an “oxymoron” and describing the demonstrations as India's domestic political matter, IANS reported from Mumbai.

Source: IANS

“Oh, UN experts, my favourite. The UN experts are the oxymoron,” Rubio said, according to IANS. “It is a domestic political matter. I am not going to comment on it. This is a democracy, they have elections here. I am not going to opine on their domestic, political matters. We have protests every day in US,” he told reporters before leaving for Jamnagar. Madhyamam, reporting the same remarks independently, said Rubio distinguished peaceful demonstrations from violent unrest and described public expressions of dissent as a feature of democracy.

Source: Madhyamam

More than 20 UN human rights experts had on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into the handling of the demonstrations, alleging excessive force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary detentions and restrictions on public assemblies, Madhyamam reported. The protests, organised by the CJP and opposition parties and student groups, are demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Protesters have questioned deletions from voter lists; the Commission has defended the revision as an exercise to remove duplicate entries and the names of deceased, shifted and otherwise ineligible voters, and has said affected individuals can appeal.

India has rejected the international criticism. Earlier on Wednesday, India told the UN General Assembly's Third Committee that it is a “vibrant democracy anchored in the rule of law” and that Article 21 of its Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty, IANS reported. Barkha Tamrakar, a Deputy Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry's UN Economic and Social Division, said India opposes the stealth use of human rights as a political tool that uses unverified allegations to selectively target countries, IANS reported. Nation Press also carried Rubio's remarks and India's response.

Source: Nation Press