The Ministry of External Affairs defended India’s record on democracy and human rights for the second time during the Prime Minister’s ongoing five-nation tour after the media in Norway raised questions about the lack of question-and-answer sessions in the Prime Minister’s press meets and reporting on human rights violations.
The defense of Sippy George, Secretary (West) in the ministry, came late Monday night in Oslo (early Tuesday morning in India), hours after Norwegian journalist Helle Ling Svendsen sought to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi a question in his joint media interaction with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Sture.
This happened after the media was told that the two leaders would not take questions at the joint interaction, although Sture spoke to Norwegian media after bidding farewell to Modi. The Indian Embassy in Norway responded to Svendsen’s social media post on the matter by saying that it was “welcome to come and ask your questions” at a press conference later in the evening.
Read also:Who is Helle Ling, the Norwegian journalist who wanted to ask PM Modi a question?
The press conference witnessed a back-and-forth between George and Svendsen that lasted over 10 minutes, with the senior diplomat defending India’s electoral record, peaceful transfer of power and fundamental rights to freedom of expression and belief enshrined in the Constitution in the face of a boycott by the journalist.
George responded to Svendsen’s questions about why other countries should trust India and report human rights violations by pointing to India’s 5,000-year-old history as a civilizational nation and its contributions such as the number zero, chess and yoga. He said that India gained the world’s trust by providing vaccines to about 100 countries during the Covid-19 pandemic and organizing the G20 summit in 2023, which succeeded in issuing a joint declaration at a time when the international community was divided over the war in Ukraine.
India also organized Voice of the Global South conferences joined by 125 countries to highlight the aspirations of these countries in the G20, and facilitated the African Union to become a full member of the G20, George said.
While defending India’s human rights record, George said the recent general elections witnessed the participation of nearly one billion voters and led to a peaceful transfer of power. He added that the Constitution of India guarantees a sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic republic, guarantees justice, freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, and equality of status and opportunities through fundamental rights.
“We are one-sixth of the world’s total population but we are not one-sixth of the world’s problems,” George said, repeating an argument he made in the Netherlands, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also faced questions from the media about the prime minister not taking questions at press conferences and the human rights situation in the country.
“People have no understanding of the size of India,” George said. “They read one or two reports published by some ignorant God-forsaken NGO, and they come and ask questions. Don’t worry about it.” “We are a democracy, we have been a democratic society for centuries… We have diversity because we have tolerance.”
Although at one point in the press conference George thought Svendsen had walked out of the event, she ran out of the room to get a glass of water.
