Hitting out at those criticising India over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar insisted that no country says everybody is welcome .
Jaishankar also flayed the United Nations Human Rights Council for its criticism on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, saying its director had been wrong earlier too and one should look at the UN body’s past record on handling the Kashmir issue.
“We have tried to reduce the number of stateless people through this legislation. That should be appreciated,” he said when asked about the CAA at the ET Global Business Summit. “We have done it in a way that we do not create a bigger problem for ourselves.”
“Everybody when they look at citizenship has a context and has a criterion. Show me a country in the world which says everybody in the world is welcome. Nobody does that. Look at America. Look at the Europeans. I can give you example of every European country. There is some social criterion,” he noted.
The external affairs minister said moving out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was in the interest of India’s business.
Asked about the UNHRC director not agreeing with India on the Kashmir issue, Jaishankar said, “UNHRC director has been wrong before. How carefully they (UNHRC) skirt around the cross-border terrorism problem, as if it has nothing to do with country next door. Please understand where they are coming from; look at UNHRC’s record how they handled the issue earlier.”
Asked if India was losing its friends, Jaishankar said, “Maybe we are getting to know who our friends really are.”
