Mind your own issues: India to neighbours
India today asked other nations, including neighbours, to refrain from commenting on the country's internal matters.
Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said this while delivering the first Sushma Swaraj Memorial Lecture organised by Panjab University on the first death anniversary of the former external affairs minister.
The abrogation of the constitution's special status to Jammu and Kashmir last year was taken in the larger interest to protect the unity, integrity, safety and sovereignty of the country, the Indian vice president said.
Pointing out that India is a parliamentary democracy, Naidu said the decision to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was taken after detailed discussion in parliament and with the support of majority of the members.
Without naming any country, Naidu asked other nations to mind their own issues instead of interfering in the internal matters of India and other countries.
Naidu's remarks came on a day when the Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected China's bid to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council.
"We have noted that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India," MEA said in a statement.
"As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community. We firmly reject China's interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts," the MEA statement added.
Earlier, in a separate statement two days ago, the MEA dismissed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's releasing a "political map" of Pakistan that shows Jammu and Kashmir and Junagadh in Indian state of Gujarat as Pakistani territory, terming it as "an exercise in political absurdity".
In yet another statement today, the Indian MEA today rejected Pakistan's foreign ministry's remarks on the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and asked Islamabad to refrain from interfering in India's internal affairs and "communal incitement".
"We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from communal incitement," the MEA statement said.
"While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable," the statement added.
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