'The Israeli government is saying, "OK, leave northern Gaza, because we're going to fight Hamas there".' 'But Hamas is not stupid. They are going to put militants in southern Gaza too. And then what's Israel going to do?' 'At some point are they going to say, 'Leave southern Gaza too because we want to fight Hamas there? Go across the border to Egypt"'? 'That's what people are worried about. Because they fear that once they cross the border into Egypt there will be no coming back.'
Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of India, a top Indian diplomat asserted at the UN Human Rights Council's meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, a day after Pakistan sought the international community's intervention on the Kashmir issue. Speaking at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council which is being held in Geneva in Switzerland from February 24 to March 20, Vikas Swarup, secretary (west), the ministry of external affairs, described Pakistan as the "epicentre of global terrorism".
India on Wednesday asked Pakistan to rein in its "compulsive hostility" towards it and fulfil its obligation to vacate illegal occupation of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which has become a "hub" for the global export of terror.
'The credibility of the messenger here is highly suspect. This is something which the global community is aware of'
Suspension is the only method provided for in the UN resolution that established the Human Rights Council back in 2005.
Till date, Pakistan, in all its official communication, has been referring to Jammu and Kashmir as "Indian Administered Kashmir"
The bench said what is worrying the court is the complexity of trial as there are over 250 witnesses in the case and the co-accused government officials have been granted bail for want of sanction for prosecution.
"The man, Noor Mohammad Ajiz Mohammad, 30, was found staying in Nagpur since the last 10 years illegally. He was living in a rented place in Dighori area of the city. Acting on a tip-off, the police had started keeping a watch on his activities. He was finally nabbed and deported to Afghanistan on June 23," he said.
Adopting an evasive approach, India on Friday abstained from a United Nations Human Rights Council vote to appoint, for a period of three years, an Independent Expert to help protect the rights of homosexuals and transgenders worldwide.
The United States has welcomed the passage of a resolution on Sri Lanka sponsored by it at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, saying the vote sent a clear signal to Colombo that the international community is committed to promote peace and stability in the country.
India along with 24 other countries on Thursday backed a United States-sponsored resolution at United Nations Human Rights Council against Sri Lanka asking it to conduct an "independent and credible" probe into allegations of human rights violations, an issue on which Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam pulled out of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government.
Sri Lanka will reject the final draft of a United States-sponsored resolution submitted at the United Nations Human Rights Council which seeks to "discredit" and "single out" the country over alleged human rights violations, External Affairs Minister G L Peiris has said.
The whole state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Pakistan remains in illegal occupation of a part of our territory Ajit Kumar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to UN offices and other International Organisations said in a statement.
Jaishankar criticised the UNHRC for its criticism on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,
India along with BRICS countries on Wednesday voted in support of a UN Human Rights Council resolution to launch a probe into Israel's offensive on Gaza. India joined Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa to vote for a Palestinian-drafted resolution on "Ensuring Respect for international law in The Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jersusalem".
Sri Lanka on Monday made it clear that it will not abide by the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution that censured it over its human rights record and said it would only implement "feasible" recommendations of its own panel that probed the three-decade-long bloody civil war.
If the Indian son-in-law can become prime minister in another country, could the daughter-in-law have not become one here, especially considering that the Indian culture and tradition is for the bahu to live, think and act like her in-laws, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
India is likely to bring an amendment to the resolution sponsored by the United States on the alleged human rights violations by the Sri Lankan authorities during the end of the civil war -- at the ongoing session United Nations Human Rights Commission meet in Geneva, according to a source in the central government.
The fact that known terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin have been able to hold huge rallies in Pakistan's main cities is a reflection of the state of affairs in Pak, said India.
Companies such as Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS Motor Company, Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki, for whom Sri Lanka is a key export destination, are experiencing a significant slowdown in demand following the import duty hikes, which have made their vehicles very expensive in the island nation.
"Sri Lanka is our next door neighbour. Geography bounds us. We have overwhelming trade ties with them. India is their biggest trade partner and the largest investor in Sri Lanka. Every fifth tourist in Sri Lanka arrives from India. Both countries' bilateral relation are so intertwined that both of us will soon take India's vote against them in the United Nations Human Rights Council in their stride."
Sri Lanka on Thursday blamed strategic alliances and domestic political issues, an apparent reference to politics in Tamil Nadu, for the UNHRC resolution that was backed by India to censure Colombo for its alleged war crimes during the ethnic conflict with the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Abstaining in the UN General Assembly on a vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, India on Thursday asserted that if it has 'chosen' any side, it is the side of 'peace and it is for an immediate end to violence.'
Eyebrows went north in India, especially in New Delhi where in the confusion some people criticized the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which is based in New York. Chitra Subramaniam offers some perspective.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sri Lanka has refused to cooperate with a United Nations investigation into alleged war crimes during the final phase of the country's civil war, saying it will not subject itself to the jurisdiction of the top rights body.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role in it.
The Modi leadership could lose Election 2024 if a communal flare-up becomes cause for all-round catastrophe, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amid threat to pull out Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ministers and quit the United Progressive Alliance coalition on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, party chief M Karunanidhi made a fresh demand insisting that Parliament adopt a resolution incorporating the two amendments he had suggested to the government to be moved on the US-backed resolution at the UNHRC.
Congress on Sunday decried "maligning" of the Prime Minister and party-led UPA government by pro-Tamil groups in the state over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and expressed confidence that India would vote in favour of the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC.
As it prepares to face a US-backed resolution on Lankan Tamils at the UNHRC, Sri Lanka claimed that it has implemented 99 per cent of some recommendations of the reconciliation commission already.
India on Thursday continued to be evasive on its stand to be adopted on the resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, triggering an angry walk out in Lok Sabha by United Progressive Alliance constituent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which was joined by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal-United.
As UNHRC is set to take up the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka, a 41-year-old man in Tamil Nadu on Monday attempted self immolation and various pro-Tamil groups staged protests demanding action against Sri Lanka for alleged war crimes.
Seeking to exert pressure on the Centre, Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that India join western countries like the United States in bringing a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC over the alleged human rights violations during the war.
The Bombay high court, while hearing posthumously the appeals filed by late Jesuit priest Stan Swamy in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, on Monday said he was a wonderful person and the court had 'great respect' for his work.
The decision on the vote in United Nations Human Rights Council on the resolution against Sri Lanka will be taken after consulting DMK and other allies, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.
Seeking to reach out to ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which has threatened to pull out of UPA government on Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said India should support the US resolution against Lanka in UNHRC if it called for an independent and reliable probe into the alleged war crimes in the island nation in 2009.
Mounting pressure on the Centre on its demand to punish 'war criminals' in Sri Lanka, United Progressive Alliance key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has threatened to pull out its ministers from the Union Cabinet if its demand to bring in amendments to the US-backed resolution at UNHRC in Geneva was not conceded.
Nepal's new Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Friday said that the blockade of key border points with India is 'more inhuman than a war' as he criticised New Delhi for raking up alleged rights abuse in Nepal at the UNHRC.