Coronavirus outbreak: India reacts sharply to UN body representative's remarks
Feeling scrutinised by multilateral agencies lately, India has been bristling at them on international fora. The latest instance of this came when the Indian representative to a UNESCO panel on Saturday reacted testily to a remark by the India representative of the UN body on the "stigmatisation of some communities during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
J S Rajput, the representative, was quoted by the The Indian Express as saying that civil society and the government were effectively looking to resolve any such matters.
“In the recent meeting of NITI Ayog, it was reported that Renata Lok-Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator in India, brought out the issue of sectorial targeting of a particular community and I found that to be highly objectionable. Such matters are being looked after by the Indian government, by enlightened citizens and the civil society in the country,” Rajput was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
Rajput's ire was drawn by remarks made a few days ago by the United Nations' resident co-ordinator in India Renata Lok-Dessallien urging the Indian government to fight “stigmatisation of certain sects of people”.
Lok-Dessallien's statement came at a time when fingers were being pointed at the Muslim community after the spike in the Covid-19 positive cases was traced to a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi.
India's strong reaction to Lok-Dessallien's statement comes a day after the World Health Organisation rectified its classification of India as being in the "community transmission" phase, a description India contested. In the rectified "situation report", India remains in the "cluster of cases" stage.
Recently too, India was none too pleased about China's remarks in the UN on the Kashmir issue, expecting some kind of return gift by Beijing for India not joining the international chorus about the "Chinese virus".
