At UN body, India says it is secular
India on Thursday said it is a secular state with no state religion and safeguarding the rights of minorities forms an essential core of its polity, as it came under criticism from Pakistan over treatment of minorities.
Speaking at the 27th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi said the Indian constitution enshrines various provisions for the protection of the rights and interest of the minorities.
Rohatgi, who led the Indian delegation at UNHCR, said India makes no distinction between caste, creed, colour, or religion of a citizen.
"India is a secular state with no state religion," he said, adding the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion to every individual.
He said right to free speech and expression occupies its rightful place in the core of the Indian constitution.
"As the world’s largest multi-layered democracy, we fully recognise the importance of free speech and expression. Our people are conscious of their political freedoms and exercise their choices at every opportunity," Rohatgi told the member states.
On concerns about Indian judiciary's ability to redress rights violations due to barriers to access justice, the attorney-general said the right to fair trial and free legal aid up to highest court are enshrined as fundamental rights in the constitution of India. "So much so that as the attorney-general of India, I was summoned by the Supreme Court at two in the morning to hear a last-ditch petition, after several rounds of litigation, by a convict who was guilty of terrorism, to escape punishment. This shows the importance of upholding of human rights by India," he said, in a reference to the final plea against death sentence of 1993 Mumbai bomb blast convict Yakub Memon in July 2015.