At UN, India says it’s secular with no state religion

on Thursday said it is a secular state with no state religion and safeguarding the rights of minorities forms the 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 , Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the Indian Constitution enshrines various provisions for the protection of the rights and interest of the minorities.

Rohatgi, who led the Indian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council, 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 that the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion to every individual.

The United Nations owes a total of $55 million to India for its contribution to the world body’s peacekeeping operations, the second highest outstanding payment to any member country.

Under-secretary-general for management Yukio Takasu, in his semi-annual overview of the Organisation’s finances, told reporters that the top troop contributing countries to UN peacekeeping operations such as Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt “deserve timely payment” for their contributions and participation in UN peacekeeping.

As on March 31, the UN owed $777 million to member states for peacekeeping operations. The UN owes India $55 million for peacekeeping operations, the second highest amount, followed by $53 million to Bangladesh and $41 million to Pakistan.

Takasu said member states who are owed outstanding payments “deserve to be reimbursed” and the organisation is “making every effort” to make the payments to the nations.

However, as on May 3, India was among the 39 member states, which had fully paid all assessments it owed to the UN. India’s Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin pointed out the lag in paying dues despite the fact that the same member states had paid their dues in full.

“Who pays on time and who is owed huge dues by UN,” he tweeted, referring to the amount the UN owed to India and other countries for peacekeeping at a time when these nations had paid their dues on times.